Finding faith: Sharing the sacred blessings of motherhood
Ganel-Lyn Condie, reigning Mrs. Utah U.S. Ambassador, poses for a photo at the Daily Herald in Provo on Friday, May 2, 2014.
Ganel-Lyn Condie, reigning Mrs. Utah U.S. Ambassador, has built her platform on the importance having a foundation of faith.
Ganel-Lyn Condie, reigning Mrs. Utah U.S. Ambassador, poses for a photo at the Daily Herald in Provo on Friday, May 2, 2014. SPENSER HEAPS, Daily Herald
Believe it or not, nestled deep inside those baskets of laundry, tucked underneath the pile of bills yet to be paid, listed among the bread and milk on the grocery list, and even found along the roadside between the dance practices and soccer games, there is a sacredness to motherhood.
It’s true. Motherhood, for all the stressful days and sleepless nights, is actually a very sacred calling in life. Utah Valley resident and mom Ganel-Lyn Condie is dedicated to helping women embrace and reinvigorate their belief that they do hold very special roles as women, as mothers, as wives, as caregivers and even as breadwinners.
“The passion in my heart right now is that the work we do, especially in our homes, is sacred,” said the Lehi resident who was recently named Mrs. Utah U.S. Ambassador 2014. The sacredness of motherhood is just a portion of this busy mother¹s speaking platform, energetically shared through numerous seminars and conferences throughout the region.
Up until our recent interview in her beautiful new home, my life had only intersected with Ganel-Lyn’s on a few occasions some seven years ago. Sadly most of those intersections happened through email or over the phone as she and I collaborated on feature articles for “Wasatch Woman Magazine,” the publication she was managing editor of at the time.
Naturally I was delighted to spend some one-on-one time with this woman I had admired for so long. It was time to get to know Ganel-Lyn even better, and share her story of motherhood with Utah Valley.
Motherhood did not come easily or quickly for Ganel-Lyn. Married for 23 years now, to her sweetheart Rob, the first seven years of their marriage was fraught with infertility and illness. For years, Ganel-Lyn not only struggled to have a baby, but was also diagnosed with the auto-immune disease lupus.
With the disease threatening her heart, doctors recommended she undergo a year-long regime of low-dose chemotherapy. That year eventually turned into a total of three years of weekly chemotherapy treatments, with five-year breaks between treatments.
Thankfully, during those blessed five-year breaks, the Condie family was able to welcome their two children — Cameron, who stands above his fellow 16-year-olds at a towering 6-foot-6, and Brooklyn, a curly-haired, 10-year-old sweetheart daughter — into their home.
As a mother, Ganel-Lyn is quick to say she doesn’t view herself as a perfect mom, but she is striving to be an authentic mom, ready to more effectively balance her often-chaotic life.
Part of that authenticity can be found in her mothering techniques. “She sacrifices herself a lot for her kids,” said her husband, Rob. “She is always up early. She makes sure the kids have all the opportunities they want. And she’s always teaching them something. She is a very sweet mom with a desire to get a lot done.”
Managing the schedules of two busy children, her own speaking engagements and finding time to spend with her husband isn’t always easy. But there are ways for keeping everything in balance.
“When I teach and speak to groups of women, I always say that my definition of balance is knowing what are your glass balls and what are your rubber balls,” she said. “Rubber balls will bounce and not break. Glass balls will break.”
Examples of rubber balls might be the piles of laundry, your daily workout routine, vacuuming out the car, or shopping for the perfect pair of shoes for your new outfit. All of these tasks are flexible. They don’t need to happen exactly how and when you say. They can be bounced to a different time or a different day.
Glass balls, on the other hand, are those people, moments and experiences that are fragile. Don’t bounce the chance to visit your elderly grandma for another, more convenient time. Don’t brush off that afternoon of swinging in the park with your daughter just so you can catch up on cleaning out the fridge. Don’t postpone that long overdue lunch with your sister because you have silly errands to run. Don’t take your glass balls for granted. Believe it or not, those glass balls can easily break.
For Ganel-Lyn, her glass balls are further defined when she has entered stormy parts of her life.
One life-altering storm hit when her husband lost his job three years ago. Adding insult to injury, the very next week he was diagnosed with skin cancer and had to have most of his nose cut off. And that same month their family dog was killed. Amid all those trials, Ganel-Lyn’s less-important rubber balls were quickly bounced away.
“I started to feel like a country song, a really bad country song,” she joked, downplaying the clear struggles the family endured for more than a year. “We pretty much sold everything we owned. “We moved into a little rental house while it took a year to sell our custom home we took a (substantial) loss on,” she said, mentioning that it was all just “stuff” rubber balls that could one day be regained after the storm passed.
What helped Ganel-Lyn and the entire Condie family through that storm was her overall foundation of faith. “Honestly we were the happiest we’ve ever been as a family.”
“Whatever it is that is your loss or your storm, your foundation of faith is: To me, you can get beaten up, torn apart by whatever it is, but you can always come back.”
Ganel-Lyn is also quick to remind her friends and family that “God sees our mission for us. We can’t see around the corner, but he can.” So while it might seem like an unimaginable leap, finding strength in your faith will help you find ultimate peace in life.
That foundation of faith, a simple statement that has actually become the platform for this Mrs. Utah U.S. Ambassador 2014, was tested even further just two months ago.
It was March 11 when Ganel-Lyn received the devastating news that her younger sister had taken her own life. At 40 years old, never married and with no children, her sister had struggled her entire life with severe depression and mental illness. While there were many times she had pulled herself out of her illness, faced her demons and rallied with help from her family, it was when she retreated into her darkness that the illness took over. Sadly that darkness was ultimately too much to bear.
When she received the news, “I lost my mind,” Ganel-Lyn said. “It’s changed me. It was more grief than I have ever experienced before.”
Just three days after receiving news of her sister’s death, Ganel-Lyn was scheduled for a speaking engagement.
“It’s strange to have a title and go to speaking engagements when you are still grieving. I thought for sure I was going to be canceling,” she said.
“The topic was going to be on faith. It is because of my faith, I know my sister is at peace now,” she said. “Truth is, I have to have a foundation of faith, because I’m the one still here living.”
In those two months since her sister’s passing Ganel-Lyn belief system has been strengthened even further. “If you were to ask me personally: What is one thing people need, across the board? It’s faith,” she said. “That’s not an LDS focus, or a Muslim focus, or a Jewish focus. No matter your religious affiliation, building a foundation of faith will help you withstand the storms of life and emerge changed for the better.”
Whenever meeting people through her travels, she is regularly asked why she is so happy. “First of all, I have a sense of faith that has actually become stronger. Six weeks ago (after her sister’s death), I had to hold on to some anchor. Six weeks later, after grieving and still grieving, (my sister) wants me to be out talking, spreading our message — the importance of faith.”
Ganel-Lyn has an unparalleled desire to change the world for the better, said her husband Rob, whether that change is to benefit her daughter, her son, her neighborhood or the world around her. “She has an extraordinary amount of love. She has the power to make people feel they can do anything they want to do,” he said. “It is her special calling in life to help people reach their full potential.”