Lessons From Our Stake Women's Conference

Today was the annual stake Relief Society women's conference. I was asked to help with the luncheon committee, so I was going--no matter how warm and snug my bed was this morning.  And, really, I was so blessed to be there.  I love meetings/activities/events that do that for me.

We had four classes and had to choose three.  I do hate that part, since every presenter is always wonderful.  But there you go.  Life is full of tough choices, isn't it?  Anyway, as a member of the luncheon committee we only got to go to one and a half presentations since we then were needed in the kitchen to finish setting up the luncheon.

I chose to go to the full version of "Becoming Guardians of the Hearth" that was given by one of the Stake presidency counselors and his wife.  They are lovely and always ask just the right questions to make you think.  In their presentation we talked about what a "hearth" is and what a "guardian" is, both figuratively and literally.  Then they turned it back to us.  "How can we--individually--be the guardian of the hearth in our homes, for ourselves and our families?" they asked.

First we are responsible for our own relationship with God.  We must know WHO we are...and that message was echoed several times to me.  (Perhaps, this is because of my struggles with why I'm in Primary right now.)  We must be anchored to the Gospel of Jesus Christ and keep things of life in proper perspective.  We have a duty to sanctify ourselves to God, to humble ourselves so the Spirit can offer insight and influence to us.

President P had us recall the New Testament story of Jesus going for 40 days into the wilderness to fast and pray and prepare for His earthly ministry.  I've heard this story many, many times but never thought of it as a pattern to follow in our lives.

After that kind of physical and spiritual cleansing, the first interaction He had as he is prepared to teach His gospel is with Satan who immediate tempts him with food--his physical strength making him more susceptible to this temptation.  Do we control our physical desires, or do they control us?

Then Satan asked Jesus about who He really was--"If thou art the Son of God...."  He uses the same diversionary tactics to keep us from seeing who we really are.

And finally, Satan offered Jesus the world and its power and influence, as that is what Satan felt was his domain and not Jesus'.  How often are we tempted by the power and influence of the world?  Satan still considers himself the "God of this world" and will use his every wile to get us to follow him.

They asked us, if our families require protection, what are we doing to protect them?

One dear sister--whom I admire and love--said that she would remind her kids when they let the house to be consistent in their behavior by telling them "Be ye therefore perfect...." and they knew that she meant for them to choose the best behavior, choices, friends, etc each day.  I know other families tell each other to "Remember who you are" or "Return with honor".  All these little mantras keep remind our families that they are made for higher things than this earth.

Our homes must have a good feeling in them to have our families wanting to be there...Love and the Spirit of the Lord must have a place in our homes, with the Spirit being the focal point.

The mood of the parents--especially the mom--sets the tone for the day for the entire family.  'If the mama ain't happy, ain't nobody happy' is truer than we care to remember.

We need to welcome others into our homes--the kids' friends, neighbors,etc--so it is an inviting and warm place for them to be too.

As we create family traditions, there is a sense of belonging that will develop between generations.

And finally, one that hit me like a load of bricks, belong to them...stay in the moment.  We only have this limited time with our children and we need to make the most of it.  Maybe because we are nearing the "chickie flying the nest" stage with The Girl, this was a powerful thought.

 The second presentation I sat in--but had to leave early--was also really good.  It was called "Teaching the Gospel in the Savior's Way" and was geared toward the new curriculum for the youth.  But I heard a few things that resonated with me--regardless of who we are teaching.

We each have a tragic gap--from where we are to where we should be.  It is part of our earthly experience, so guilt is not a great motivator.

Our personal "private devotionals" are the first step be need to take to teach.  We cant' teach what we don't know.  We must take care of our spiritual needs before helping others with theirs.  If we have the Spirit and are worthy to have it with us we are sanctioned to teach the Gospel.  And if we aren't doing this stuff personally, it doesn't really matter what else we say tot htem.

Next, we have to develop charity to be an effective teacher.  Teaching using different methods is still only effective is our students (or families) know we love them first.  It isn't a coincidence that Jesus is the perfect example of charity and also called the Master Teacher.

More than half of teaching is listening.  He used this equation:  SPEAK< LISTEN = Discernment

And serving others requires the right kind of preparation--we must have the desire to serve/teach/lead, it takes practice and having the Spirit as our companion is vital to any action we take.

As the morning wound down, we met back in the chapel to finish before the luncheon.  Our stake RS president shared this scripture with us. "....And if ye labor with your might with me ye shall have joy in the fruit which I shall lay up unto myself against the time which will soon come."  --Jacob 5:71

She emphasized that we aren't just laboring in the vineyard alone.  We are promised, if we labor with our might, the Savior will be laboring alongside of us.  We are never along in this work.  And together we will find the joy that comes from service and that joy will carry us along even if the world around us isn't where we want to be.

As we began, she had asked us to each listen with our hearts and commit to "going and doing" three things we learned today at this conference.  My three were:
1) Increase the quality of my personal devotionals.
2) Be in the moment with those I am spending my time.
3) Speak < Listen (and Observe) = discernment

Our Stake President concluded with thoughts that reverberated our RS president's message.  We need to be with the Savior to see success in our efforts--no matter where our vineyard is.  And he added the observation element to our discernment equation.  He also shared a thought from Elder M. Russell Ballard, quoting President Joseph F. Smith "It is not for you to be led by the women of the world; it is for you to lead the … women of the world, in everything that is praise-worthy, everything that is God-like, everything that is uplifting and … purifying to the children of men."

 I felt like I came away with much, much more than  arrived with today.  It seems that whenever I hesitant to go to these kind of things, I always get that result.  I wonder how much more I'd get out of something if I had better attitude about it in the first place.  I'm so grateful I felt the Spirit teach me things i needed to hear today.  It sets up a great Sabbath feeling, to be sure.