By ERIC D. SNIDER
The theme of this week's Women's Conference, sponsored by BYU and the Relief Society of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, is 'Search Diligently in the Light of Christ.'
This phrase, taken from the prophet Mormon's address in Moroni 7:19, came after much consideration on the part of the Women's Conference Committee, headed for the second year in a row by Kathy Pullins, assistant dean of the J. Reuben Clark Law School.
'We spent a big part of our weekly meetings for the first month discussing possible topics,' she said. 'We wanted something that would provide a framework without being too restrictive.'
Wendy L. Watson, BYU professor of marriage and family therapy graduate programs, will give the keynote address Thursday at 8:30 a.m. in the Marriott Center.
'A major portion of my talk is six constraining beliefs that women have about themselves or others or life that prevent us from 'laying hold upon every good thing,' from 'searching diligently in the light of Christ,'' Watson said.
Those six things include the erroneous beliefs that 'we have to lay hold upon every good thing at once,' that we, and not God, know best how our lives should be, and 'that we can never be forgiven and that our past predicts and determines our future.'
Watson said of her six points, 'They've come to me out of 25 years of working with families who have been presented with distress and suffering in their lives.' She encountered this in her professional life, as well as in her position as Relief Society President of the BYU 5th Stake, from which she was recently released.
Regarding the Book of Mormon scripture that serves as the theme of the conference, Watson said, 'It's a very hope-filled scripture, very light-filled. To me the point is that we as LDS women need to do everything we can to invite more light into our lives.'
Pullins said, 'We need to approach all learning, whether we're talking about fairly secular things, or whether we're talking about something that's gospel-connected, to try to take that discernment with you to the setting of any topic ... to make sure that your learning is conducted in the right way.'