Thanks to the kind invitation of my friend, Margaret (
thank you, thank you!) I had the privilege of hearing our General Relief Society President, Julie Beck at a special Enrichment meeting last night. Quite the Stake Enrichment Activity! And I do mean
privilege. In a world where I see many women striving to figure out what really matters and who they really are and how they can really make a difference, I listen to Sister Beck's words and watch her demeanor and marvel at how true and clear and steady she is on these issues ... and she presents what I believe a REAL woman is all about:
family, steadfastness, integrity, spiritual strength, nurturing, example,
friendship & sistership,
joyfulness, and most especially
we are daughters of our Heavenly Father.
I always said I wanted to be like Sheri Dew when I grew up (and various other women too) but I expand that circle to include Julie Beck. I was so impressed with her! She was funny and charming and down to earth yet also wise and strong in her words. The talk she gave in October General Conference 2007 is one of my absolute favorites. You should read it, honestly:
http://lds.org/conference/talk/display/0,5232,23-1-775-40,00.htmlLDS or not, it will give you a clearer vision of who you are and what you can do to make a difference for good in this world.
Sister Beck handled things last night very differently than I expected: instead of giving a prepared speech or talk she asked for questions from the hundreds of women in the audience. COOL! I was again impressed at how strong, firm and clear her answers were to each and every question. And absolutely NOTHING threw her! She quoted something from President Spencer W. Kimball that struck me deeply, and then she repeated it at least once more before the end of her talk. I share:
"...Finally, my dear sisters, may I suggest to you something that has not been said before or at least in quite this way. Much of the major growth that is coming to the Church in the last days will come because many of the good women of the world (in whom there is often such an inner sense of spirituality) will be drawn to the Church in large numbers. This will happen to the degree that the women of the Church reflect righteousness and articulateness in their lives and to the degree that the women of the Church are seen as distinct and different—in happy ways—from the women of the world. "Among the real heroines in the world who will come into the Church are women who are more concerned with being righteous than with being selfish. These real heroines have true humility, which places a higher value on integrity than on visibility. Remember, it is as wrong to do things just to be seen of women as it is to do things to be seen of men. Great women and men are always more anxious to serve than to have dominion.
" Thus it will be that female exemplars of the Church will be a significant force in both the numerical and the spiritual growth of the Church in the last days."I was curious about this quote so I went out and found it this morning:
http://www.lds.org/ldsorg/v/index.jsp?vgnextoid=2354fccf2b7db010VgnVCM1000004d82620aRCRD&locale=0&sourceId=a3f0615b01a6b010VgnVCM1000004d82620a____&hideNav=1It was part of an address President Spencer W. Kimball gave (sort of ) at a gathering of sisters in Salt Lake City in
1979! Wow. It's worth reading so I've linked it for you, if you're interested.
I wrote down lots of little impression snippets - things that touched me as Sister Beck spoke. Here's some of what came across, for me:
1) Along with our testimonies of Heavenly Father and Jesus Christ, the greatest trait we can develop (and teach our children) is listening to the Spirit;
2) It's a privilege to be exemplars of our beliefs via the opportunity to be distinct and different, in
HAPPY ways (as President Kimball stated in the quote Sister Beck read);
3) Visiting Teaching is a way of showing our faith. And ask yourself this question: if your sisters can't or don't want to call on you when they need help or lifting up,
why not?
4) If I don't come out of this life with my relationships intact, I will have failed to a certain degree.
Everyone, no matter how rough the association, can be an
interesting friend (and can teach us some stuff);
5) No matter my circumstance: single, widowed, single mom, married with kids, married without kids -- the gospel plan needs to be lived in my home
with exactness. And if I do have children I need to be intentional in my parenting. It will take
intentional parenting to keep our children safe in the current world we live in;
6) This struck me the deepest: It is joyful to
have the experience. This life isn't about always getting the dream, it's about having the experiences. We are promised the dream AFTER the growth that comes from our experiences;
7) I was also deeply touched as Sister Beck responded to a question one sister had about her loved one (sister? friend? I can't remember ...) who can't have children. I'm sure it struck me because I haven't gotten to be a mom. She said that Motherhood is an opportunity to learn lessons, and even if we have no children we should still want to learn things because Motherhood is our Eternal Role. Someday we WILL be mothers and we should learn what we can!
8) I loved this: men usually have just one shift to work, don't they? Women usually have to work all three [don't we?] (Morning, Swing and Midnight). Doesn't it seem like EVERYTHING happens on the Swing Shift?! Hahahaha! That's when people are tired, they're hungry, they're needy ... so that's one of our greatest opportunities to nurture, to influence, to teach. Conserve your energy for the Swing Shift! (if you can.)
As I'm preview-reading this entry I realize I can never do justice to what I experienced. I just hope you can feel a little of what I felt: that WE are amazing, wonderful, STRONG women and it's a privilege to stand tall as one of God's daughters. :-)
AND after I posted this I visited my friend, Margaret's blog and she gave a WONDERFUL summary of both the questions asked and Sister Beck's responses. It's great -- go check it out!!! Here's the link:
http://magspie.blogspot.com/
