True Confessions/True Principles

General Conference time is coming. Ok, it’s still two months away, but I really look forward to conference weekend. Before it comes around again, I want to share my thoughts on a couple of April conference talks made an impression on me, and changed me. The two talks dovetailed together, the impressions rumbled around in my brain and heart for a while, and then I finally decided to make a change. I had been drinking caffeinated drinks for quite a while to get more energy during the day. My rationalization: I take Tylenol if I have a headache; why not take something to give me more energy? Still, I had a nagging feeling that I wasn’t really taking good care of myself, and may even be falling into an addictive habit. Conference time came around. This is what I heard:

Elder Wirthlin: “It’s easy to feel overwhelmed. With all the pressures and demands on our time and the stress we face each day, it’s little wonder we get tired. Many feel discouraged because they have not measured up to their potential. Others simply feel too weak to contribute...
Everyone has felt tired and weary at one time or another. I seem to feel more so now than I did when I was younger. Joseph Smith, Brigham Young, even Jesus Christ knew what it meant to be tired. I do not wish to underestimate the weight that members of the Church bear upon their shoulders, nor do I minimize the emotional and spiritual trials they face. These can be heavy and often difficult to bear.
I do, however, have a testimony of the renewing power of the gospel of Jesus Christ. The prophet Isaiah proclaimed that the Lord “giveth power to the faint; and to them that have no might he increaseth strength.” 

Ok, so instead of getting my strength from a can, I’ll go to the Lord and pray for energy and stamina?

Then the straw-breaker from Elder Ballard: “Avoid any kind of substance abuse, mistakenly thinking that it will help you accomplish more.”

Gulp. Are you talking to me? Yup, I think you are talking to me.

So on May 17th, I stopped drinking and taking caffeine. (Well, I’ll have a sip every now and then, but no longer is it a regular drink.) You can see that it rumbled around in my brain and heart for a while, since the talks were given the first week of April! I’m here to testify that my strength and energy are just fine, and my daily headaches have disappeared. I have gained a stronger testimony of the renewing power of Jesus Christ; I had seen it in our prophets and apostles and the energetic lives that they lead, and now I have felt it in my own life.

P. S. Elder Ballard's talk is a MUST READ (again and again) for we mothers, and especially you young mothers. 

http://lds.org/conference/talk/display/0,5232,23-1-851-37,00.html