So what I'm thinking is since I'll be too busy swimming at the beach, being with my family&friends and getting a tan for the next four weeks, my blog posts will be travel diaries. Y'all cool with that? Sweet. Hope you enjoy it!
Last Sunday I gave a talk in my ward and the theme was "Following the example of Jesus Christ by serving in Relief Society". Apparently people liked it so I'll just copy-paste the notes from my talk here:
One of my biggest shocks coming in to Relief Society from Young Women’s was not having Personal Progress. Personal Progress kept me busy during my six years in YW, and it gave me a sense of purpose and direction. Then I come to Relief Society and it was a weird adjustment not having a booklet with a list of goals to accomplish. It took me a while to truly understand what it was about this organization that sets it apart from all others and what my role was.
The Relief Society declaration helped me better understand my role not only as a member of Relief Society, but also my role in society as a woman and as a daughter of God:
“We are beloved spirit daughters of God, and our lives have meaning, purpose, and direction. As a worldwide sisterhood, we are united in our devotion to Jesus Christ, our Savior and Exemplar. We are women of faith, virtue, vision, and charity who:
Increase our testimonies of Jesus Christ through prayer and scripture study.
Seek spiritual strength by following the promptings of the Holy Ghost.
Dedicate ourselves to strengthening marriages, families, and homes.
Find nobility in motherhood and joy in womanhood.
Delight in service and good works.
Love life and learning.
Stand for truth and righteousness.
Sustain the priesthood as the authority of God on earth.
Rejoice in the blessings of the temple, understand our divine destiny, and strive for exaltation.”
Isn’t that beautiful? The longer I’ve been a member of this organization, the more I realize that there is so much more to women than bearing children, cooking, and cleaning. Elder Quentin L. Cook made the following declaration with regard to women: “The priesthood leadership of this Church at all levels gratefully acknowledges the service, sacrifice, commitment, and contribution of the sisters. Much of what we accomplish in the Church is due to the selfless service of women. Whether in the Church or in the home, it is a beautiful thing to see the priesthood and the Relief Society work in perfect harmony. Such a relationship is like a well-tuned orchestra, and the resulting symphony inspires all of us.” That talk was such a good ego boost.
I know that we are daughters of God. We are daughters of our Heavenly Father who loves us, and we love Him. The best way to show that we love Him is by loving and serving others. I’m going to be very cliche right now and quote the lyrics to As Sisters in Zion, because they give me the goosebumps and hopefully you will feel the spirit as well:
“As sisters in Zion, we'll all work together; The blessings of God on our labors we'll seek. We'll build up his kingdom with earnest endeavor; We'll comfort the weary and strengthen the weak.
The errand of angels is given to women; And this is a gift that, as sisters, we claim: To do whatsoever is gentle and human, To cheer and to bless in humanity's name.
How vast is our purpose, how broad is our mission, If we but fulfill it in spirit and deed. Oh, naught but the Spirit's divinest tuition Can give us the wisdom to truly succeed.”
I truly believe that when we reunite with our Heavenly Father the first thing He will ask us is “How have you helped my brethren?”. We hear talks in church all the time about how Christ-like women are and how we have divine attributes and pretty much just how naturally awesome we are. Not to sound like a total feminist, but all of this is true and I stand by it. But moreover, I would add based on that and the lyrics of As Sisters in Zion, because we are given those qualities and capacities, it is our duty as women to utilize them to serve. Our purpose here on Earth is to comfort the weary, strengthen the weak, do whatsoever is gentle and human, and cheer and bless in humanity’s name. If we’re not doing those things, we are not fulfilling our Earthly mission. There is a reason as to why our motto is “Charity never faileth” and why the name of our organization is Relief Society - not women over 18, or the cooking club - we are a society of relief.
With regard to charity, there is a super awesome scripture in Moroni chapter 7 if you’d like to follow along, starting on verse 45: “And charity suffereth long, and is kind, and envieth not, and is not puffed up, seeketh not her own, and is not easily provoked, thinketh no evil, and rejoiceth not in iniquity but rejoiceth in the truth, beareth all things, believeth all things, hopeth all things, endureth all things.”
Now here comes my favourite part: “If ye have not charity, ye are nothing, for charity never faileth. Wherefore, cleave unto charity, which is the greatest of all, for all things must fail-” So pretty much, you can accomplish whatever you want in life, but if it wasn’t out of charity it’s worth nothing. Isnt that intense? I love it!
I really like this part too: “Charity is the pure love of Christ, and it endureth forever; and whoso is found possessed of it at the last day, it shall be well with him.”
How can we, as sisters in zion, follow the example of Jesus Christ and serve in Relief Society?
- Love every single sister in your ward or branch: Sometimes it can be a challenging thing to get along with everyone. We’re all different and none of us are perfect so we will all at one point end up hurting someone’s feelings. If we have caused hurt to someone, let us decide to humble down and sincerely apologize to those whom we’ve offended and not do it again and strive to be loving and kind from that point. If someone has caused hurt to us, let us strive to forgive them, regardless if we’ve received an apology or not. Jesus Christ himself said, “Father, forgive them; for they know not what they do.” as he was mocked and crucified. People who don’t deserve our kindness are the ones who need it the most. There is nothing more rewarding than the feeling we get after reconciling with someone and offer them nothing but love and kindness. I promise that as you do that you will feel God’s appreciation and you won’t regret it.
- Visit-teach Those of you who are in YSA are probably thinking: “Of course the Visit Teaching supervisor would advertise visit teaching. I’ll just zone out now [Yawn]” - but hear me out! This is totally not biased, but my favourite part of being in Relief Society is visit teaching. I just love to talk and give lessons, and the spirit I feel every time I do it. That was never really a problem for me. However, after leaving my parents’ house and facing the challenges of adulthood, I realized how much I relied on the love and service of others. That opened my eyes to a whole other purpose of visit-teaching; the purpose of visit teaching is to get to know the sisters on your route, love them, identify their temporal and spiritual needs and their struggles, and do everything you can to uplift and serve them to the best of your ability. Visit teaching is a lot more than just dropping by a sister’s house and summarizing the message from the Ensign - it’s about being a friend and genuinely loving and serving them. I’ve developed so many friendships from this program.
- Magnify your callings Sometimes we are given callings we are not too excited about. But what I do know is that our bishop, along with his counsellors, know what they are doing. I know they are called by God. I know that every calling they assign to us is inspired. I know that as we magnify our callings we will draw not only those involved in the calling, but also ourselves closer to God. Callings provide us with the opportunity to serve and become like our Saviour. My dad always said that when judging our worthiness to enter the celestial kingdom, God won’t ask us what callings we had; rather, He will ask what we did with our callings.
- When the presidency announces a favour one of the sister needs, volunteer to do it: I am so grateful to all those sisters who volunteered to let me keep their stuff in their storage space every time I went home for the summer. I’m so grateful to all you sisters who have gone out of your way to help me or anyone else in need. I’m so grateful for your examples of service and dedication in uplifting others. You make me want to be better. You are all amazing, and God is so proud of you.
- Do missionary work: Not to be one of those who discuss their PT’s on the pulpit, but I’ve been bad at this. So what I’m about to say goes to me as well. Other than parenthood, missionary work is the most heart-softening task someone can accomplish. It changes us for better. It brings us closer to God. It helps us appreciate the gospel in our lives. It’s challenging, but so rewarding. It is like sugar cane - hard, but sweet. Some of us do not meet the situation in life where serving a full-time mission is an option, and that’s okay. There are so many other ways we can do missionary work; we can go out with the sister missionaries, we can befriend any investigators or less actives, we can introduce our friends to the gospel or invite them to an activity, and we can (and should) be an example.
- Commit to making one person smile every day: earlier this year I went through a very challenging trial in my life that took every drop of energy and faith in me to move forward with my life. One night I was praying for some sort of relief from what I was facing. The answer I got was: “Kim, have you made someone smile today?” And I realized I was so caught up in my own problems that I failed to acknowledge the needs of others. At that moment I knew there were people out there who like me, were also facing challenges, if not harder ones. And as I came to that realization and acted on it, I was so blessed it felt like my problems somehow didn’t phase me anymore. It doesn’t have to be anything big - it can be a simple smile to a stranger or a homeless person and wishing them a good day, a genuine compliment, a hug, or telling someone you love and appreciate them.
My mother always taught me that when you’re having a bad day, go out and serve someone and that will make your day better. I’ve learned that to be true and I encourage you to try it. The more you serve, not only will you grow closer to Jesus Christ, but you will understand and appreciate your role as a woman more than any other way. As the hymn says, “Love one another as Jesus loves you. Try to show kindness in all that you do. Be gentle and loving in deed and in thought - for these are the things Jesus taught.”
(Hymn #223) I’ve got a few questions for you to ask yourself, as you go about your week:
- Have I done any good in the world today?
- Have I helped anyone in need?
- Have I cheered up the sad and made someone feel glad?
- Has anyone’s burden been lighter today because I was willing to share?
- Have the sick and the weary been helped on their way?
- When they needed my help was I there?
Obviously I didn't say it exactly like that - I said a lot more jokes and would be prompted to say more things on the spot now and then, but it's the gist of it. Love you all!
Miss Mottola
This sounds like a really good talk. I have a talk on Sunday. I hate giving talks, but hopefully I will do as well as you did. You're awesome!
ReplyDelete