Needed To Hear It Again

Since the new Ensign magazine arrived at our home, I have made it a goal to read one talk a day and ponder the messages from October's General Conference one at a time.  This morning I read Elder Christofferson's "The Moral Force of Women".  (You can review it HERE.)

I remember hearing it during conference as I watched it live on TV, and wondered how many of the "Ordain Women" sisters he was speaking to.  A cynical thought, I know, but that was what I had thought at the time.

This morning, however, I read his words and heard them as if they were given to teach ME.  As I read this morning, I realized that I really want to be like Sister Daines, whom Elder Christofferson wrote about as having influenced him for good when hew as growing up.  I had a member of our stake presidency tell me that much when I served in our Stake YW presidency--that I would have a lasting influence for good on the kids we worked with during our term of service.  I hope that is true.

As my favorite TREK "sons" have been returning home from missions--another returned home last night, in fact--I hope that they still know that I love them and just how very proud I am of them, how much they inspire me and how much I admire their willingness to serve the Lord.

I thought of the time I have had to spend in my children's schools and of the kids I had an opportunity to see on a regular basis there.  I hope they could feel God's love through my service to them.  I hope they learned from what I did and the efforts we made as PTA members and leaders to build them up and give them more chances to learn.

Elder Christofferson said:

"Former Young Women general president Margaret D. Nadauld taught: “The world has enough women who are tough; we need women who are tender. There are enough women who are coarse; we need women who are kind. There are enough women who are rude; we need women who are refined. We have enough women of fame and fortune; we need more women of faith. We have enough greed; we need more goodness. We have enough vanity; we need more virtue. We have enough popularity; we need more purity.”¹⁰ In blurring feminine and masculine differences, we lose the distinct, complementary gifts of women and men that together produce a greater whole.

"My plea to women and girls today is to protect and cultivate the moral force that is within you. Preserve that innate virtue and the unique gifts you bring with you into the world. Your intuition is to do good and to be good, and as you follow the Holy Spirit, your moral authority and influence will grow. To the young women I say, don’t lose that moral force even before you have it in full measure. Take particular care that your language is clean, not coarse; that your dress reflects modesty, not vanity; and that your conduct manifests purity, not promiscuity. You cannot lift others to virtue on the one hand if you are entertaining vice on the other.".

I hope I will be remembered as one who tried to make the world -- or at least the little part where I get to be -- a little better than it would have been if I wasn't there.  But most of all, I hope that I have done something good, something that my Heavenly Father is pleased with and that I will be able to answer for happily at the judgement of the Lord.