Time Out for Women Notes

Time out for Women was great again this year. Here are some of the notes and highlights I wrote down. These are not direct quotes or written word for word.

Dean Hughes was my favorite speaker. He talked a lot about self talk and success in life. He is very down to earth and funny:
Life is defined too often as a competition. Why do we get so carried away with comparing ourselves to others around us? When we sense that we are becoming more like Jesus Christ is when we are happiest. He talked about how there was a survey among the general population asking them to rank themselves as drivers. Most people ranked themselves as an above average driver. When asked to rank how others drive, they ranked most drivers as below average. Do we do that in our lives with everything? We think we are above average and judge others as below average and go through life with anger in our hearts. We are less patient with others because we have already prejudged them as someone who will waste our time. For example we can get upset while we are standing in line at the store and the person in front of us pulls out a check and takes forever writing it. We need to make a key phrase we can say to ourselves at times like these to calm our minds and to remember who we want to be and how we want to treat others (not with anger and resentment). Dean Hughes uses the phrase "this is one of those times". He says this when he gets stressed and it calms him and helps him to pull back from the situation and re assess. And try to make his attitude and actions more like the saviors. After doing this the spirit will reassure you that you are doing the right thing and becoming more like the person you want to be.

Often times we feel that when someone does well in something that it takes something away from us. He used a hummingbird example. He puts out food for the birds and their are a few different feeders but once one hummingbird is at one, all the other ones will fight for it. Are we like that? We think sometimes that there is only so much friendship to go around, or so much prestige, so much love of God even. Life is not a contest. Be happy for others! What will be important to the Lord in the end is who we have become not the things we think we have aquired or been better at than someone else.

Do we turn others into our enemies? Over political matters or anything. These feelings eat at us and destroy us. Try to see the other person's perspective when we feel we are being attacked. He gives an example of how he felt attacked by a co-worker and so he decided to ask around about this person. One student told him that this "enemy" of his gave him his watch because he didn't have one. Dean thought this was a really generous and kind thing to do so he held onto this thought and every time this "enemy" of his upset him he would think about that watch and how he gave it away and it would soften his feelings toward this man. He said they never became best friends or anything but he was able to rid that anger, that was damaging his soul. This was the most important thing. We get uptight because we are so busy. Calm yourself with a phrase. The Lord and the Holy Ghost can change us more than we can change ourselves. Be softer, listen to the spirit. Think of what matters most. Let things go that are hurtful and make you angry.
LOVE< LOVE< LOVE that talk. And that man. He is wonderful.
Super tired tonight. I will post more tomorrow! To be continued.....(: