When I Focused on the Lord, I Stopped Feeling Stressed Out

This talk was given at the 2019 stake women's conference.
By Kara Lunsford, a Laurel

Hello beautiful sisters! I am so grateful for this opportunity to speak to you wonderful women.

About three weeks ago Sister Adams and Sister Wensel came and asked me if I would be willing to talk at this women's conference. Surprisingly, I was super excited! They asked me to accept this 21-day challenge given by Wendy Watson Nelson. This challenge is to “make a sacrifice of time to the Lord by increasing time in family history and in temple work.” I was very excited about this and to learn and become closer to my Savior.

At the beginning, I did all right with the challenge. I was more focused on what happened and what I could share with you women than how it affected me personally in my life. I didn’t notice a huge difference in how I felt or how happy I was. After that, I didn’t do anything for about a week and a half, partly because I was sick and partly because I wasn't sure what to do and it just didn’t really cross my mind.

However, this past Sunday, my cute mom came and asked me how it was going, and I was completely honest with her. I told her I wasn’t sure what to do or why I was chosen to do this. She told me not to worry about what already happened, (or didn’t happen, haha), but to just focus on what I can do this week.

We made a plan of what I was going to do each day. I was going to write in my journal every day about my family and what happened that day. Every time I went to write, all I could think about was all of the good things that happened that day and how blessed I am. I began to really be aware of how incredible my family is and that I truly want to spend eternity with them.

Sisters, friends are great and amazing, but family is forever, literally. On Wednesday my mom and I went to the Ogden temple. I hadn’t been to the temple in a very long time. I had forgotten how special the Spirit is there and how going to the temple can change your whole day and mood in an instant!

Sisters, I know it may sound strange since I don’t know most of you, but I truly do love you. I can feel your spirits and I have so much love for you all. There aren’t words to describe my gratitude for my mom. Not just for how she helped me this week but for everything she does for me, which literally is EVERYTHING!

This week was one of the busiest weeks I’ve had in a long time; however, somehow when I was focused on the Lord and giving him a bit of time of the day, I wasn’t ever really stressed out about getting everything done, and I was able to finish everything that I needed to.

Wonderful ladies, I would like to invite you to ALL accept and be a part of this challenge. I realize that we are all busy and have a million and one things going on, but if you sincerely pray and ask Heavenly Father for guidance and help, you will be just fine. Now, I’m not saying that it will be easy-breezy; it will probably be difficult at times, but as my mom always says, “We can do hard things!”

I encourage you to really take things into consideration and not just put it into the back of your head once you leave the meeting. I promise you, and I know that when people say that you think, “Um, yeah, well, how can you PROMISE that this will happen?” but I really do promise you that if you try your very best and ask Heavenly Father for help you will get it.

Even if you are just at the point of wanting to want to do this, that is enough, and Heavenly Father will help soften your heart and help you along the journey. You can even get a few friends together and plan to help each other remember to do this. I promise you, your life will be changed. You may not notice it immediately, but it will be, and you will see a difference!

I love you all and seriously hope you will accept this challenge. You are all beautiful women and I can honestly say that I can feel the Savior's love for you. I say these things in the name of Jesus Christ, amen.