The Writings of Kate Holbrook Part 1

Discussion Materials:

Living With Kids: Kate Holbrook

The Continuing Restoration and Gathering of Israel by Kate Holbrook (2020 BYU Women’s Conference)

Discussion:

“Words are our entry into another culture. They are the way we make ourselves intelligible in a strange land. They not only allow us to connect, to make ourselves understood. They show respect. We are making an effort to communicate in a way that can be understood. If we insist on using standard church language, we are in effect declaring our indifference. We force people to learn our language in order to understand us. We don’t go halfway.” 

“We do have some control over the quality of our work—we can organize and exert ourselves to do our best work. But after that, I think these two are right, that character is one of the few things we can control. I would add to that insight that to build character, we can put ourselves in places that invite God into our presence; we inhabit those places when we act. When we serve, pray, read scripture, or attend church, we invite the Divine into our lives and souls where God improves our character.” Kate Holbrook, “The Weight of Legacy,” Maxwell Institute Annual Meeting 2020

“When I feel frustrated, I try to remember the point of the house is to bring people together, not to harm relationships in search of house perfection.” Stressed about in-laws arriving without a time, etc., this statement helped adjust thinking.

It is a reminder that In-laws can be hard, but family dinners, etc., are about relationships—try to focus on the relationship rather than criticism or difficult personalities

We want our home to feel peaceful and put together, not chaotic -

Comforting to know that Kate has had hard times and didn’t always receive answers— we can feel what a struggle it is to recognize revelation, but as Kate pointed out, there is always someone for us to help

This is what I can do, so I do it—don’t beat ourselves up over what we can’t do, focus on what is possible in building or maintaining relationships

Adopting a view of revelation as a process requires patience and hope. By definition, hope is something we have despite negative past experience or evidence that points to the contrary. Hope is something we choose. When you feel acutely one of the world’s problems, you can spend all of your energy in anger and criticism, or you can study, pray, and choose to hope in the solution that comes, your role as part of the solution. Criticism is vital to good thinking, but I believe we must balance it with hope and with positive action. We can hold that hope out in front of us to light our way and to light the way of others. https://www.churchofjesuschrist.org/study/broadcasts/byu-womens-conference-2020/the-continuing-restoration-and-gathering-of-israel?lang=eng

A conversation between a member and her brother-in-law: when she said something out of frustration, her brother-in-law responded, “You were right, but there is a spectrum of how to react—which side of the spectrum were you on?” Super helpful for resetting emotions

Always remember: Revelation is a process. Recognize the process—look back to reflect on the process - This helps as we work to recognize revelation and act more 

Revelation comes as a thought, but she doesn’t know it’s a revelation or the right thing until she looks back 

The story of Ardeth Kapp keeps me going - If we don’t continue to pursue the Lord’s guidance, particularly when we encounter difficulties or frustrations, then we might overlook inspired solutions and fail to fix problems.

Stay on track - we take our covenants seriously, so focusing on the seriousness of our temple covenants can keep us going

Back to the first statement that words matter — sacramental prayer words matter —everything we say in the temple matters—pay attention to the words we say or hear all of the time to note the importance and what more we can learn