Tuesday, December 1, 2009

Relief Society: A Sacred Work

Alright girls; lets see a show of hands indicating who was scared or aprehensive or just plain mad to enter Relief Society. [counting hands...] I thought so.

I turned 18 early in my senior year, and having moved into a new ward on that birthday, I chose to attend Relief Society, rather than try to navigate the waters of a new Young Womens group. I am grateful for that decision to this day. I learned, for the first time, about sisterhood. I was overwhelmingly blessed to have the guidance, friendship, and above all, the love of more mature sisters in my ward. I am not a "Becky-Home-Ecky" and I am actually intimidated by large groups of women (Its actually why I talk so much, girls. I'm nervous ;) ). As I have gotten older, I have struggled a little bit with Relief Society--not particularly liking "Enrichment" (note the quotes), feeling like we focus too much on trivial things and don't expect gospel scholarship and critical thinking in our groups. I was humbled and chastened to read this week's talk by Sister Beck, "Relief Society: A Sacred Work." Sister Beck is the Relief Society General President, so one assumes she understands the purposes of Relief Society. I was inspired by her message and hope you will be too.
Now, I know we are all busy right now with the holidays and all our responsibilities. So, following the excellent advice of Nancy, I have a challenge! (A challenge, you say? I love a challenge! It fuels my competitive instinct! You don't have a competitive instinct? Fine. Then be sport and do it anyway.) Here's the deal:
1-Read the talk
2-Think about the talk
3-In ONE sentence, sum up your feeling about the talk.

Who doesn't have time to write a sentence? I have time to write a sentence. I like sentences. Its part of why I do this. So, lets get summarizing and add to each others' little bottles of oil. We can all use it during hectic, and often troubling times. Love you girls!

2 comments:

  1. This talk was a great reminder to me that Relief Society is not here to 'entertain' me, but rather for me to learn how to strengthen others through service, and that's how I will grow.

    ReplyDelete
  2. I loved this talk. I also was not excited to attend Relief Society at the age of 18, but my mother promised me that if I did my abilities as a wife and mother would be blessed by the Lord. She also promised that I wouldn't have to be involved with a lot of women groups and that I would find happines and joy in being a mother and wife.I thank my mother daily for this advise. Relief Society had always been a great blessing in my life.

    ReplyDelete

Enlighten us!