Good Food!!

Really, really great counsel from Julie Beck. Find the time to watch it.....it is really worth it! :)
BYUtv - BYU Women's Conference: Julie B. Beck (2010)

I Love Relief Society!

I know it has been almost a week since the General Relief Society Meeting, but I loved it so very much that I couldn't let another day go by without putting it up here. I LOVE Relief Society! I get so excited when I get to go to Relief Society(I am in YW and so it doesn't happen very often). I am so grateful that Heavenly Father organized a place for women where we could go to be taught more about our divine natures and where we could work together and strengthen and help each other. I love it! I also loved the meeting last week and wanted to post just a few tidbits from it.

Our dear, sweet President Julie Beck said:

"There is a worldwide hunger among good women to know their identity, value, and importance. Studying and applying the history of Relief Society gives definition and expression to who we are as disciples and followers of our Savior, Jesus Christ. Our faithfulness and service are signs of our conversion and commitment to remember and follow Him.....The history of Relief Society teaches us that our Heavenly Father knows His daughters. He loves them, He has given them specific responsibilities, and He has spoken to and guided them during their mortal missions."

Sister Silvia H. Allred said:

"I know that each of us has a vital and essential role as a daughter of God. He has bestowed upon His daughters divine attributes for the purpose of forwarding His work. God has entrusted women with the sacred work of bearing and rearing children. No other work is more important. it is a holy calling. The noblest office for a woman is the sacred work of building eternal families, ideally in partnership with her husband."

Sister Barbara Thompson said:

"The Savior has asked us to do the things which He has done, to bear one another's burdens, to comfort those who need comfort, to mourn with those who mourn, to feed the hungry, visit the sick, to succor the weak, lift up the hands which hang down, and to "teach one another the doctrine of the kingdom." To me these words and actions describe visiting teachers- those who minister to others.

Visiting teaching gives women the opportunity to watch over, strengthen, and teach one another. Much like a teacher in the Aaronic Priesthood is charged with the responsibility to
"watch over the Church always" and to "be with and strengthen them", a visiting teacher shows her love by prayerfully considering each woman she is called to serve."

Our inspired and wonderful example, President Thomas S. Monson counseled us:

" My dear sisters, each of you is unique. You are different from each other in many ways. There are those of you who are married. Some of you stay at home with your children, while others of you work outside your homes. Some of you are empty-nesters. There are those of you who are married but do not have children. There are those who are divorced, those who are widowed. Many of you are single women. some of you have college degrees; some of you do not. There are those who can afford the latest fashions and those who are lucky to have one appropriate Sunday outfit. Such differences are almost endless. Do these differences tempt us to judge one another?

Mother Theresa, a Catholic nun who worked among the poor in India most of her life, spoke this profound truth. "If you judge people, you have no time to love them." The Savior has admonished, "This is my commandment, That ye love one another, as I have loved you." I ask: Can we love one another, as the Savior has commanded, if we judge each other? And I answer-with Mother Theresa-"No; we cannot."

True Charity is love in action. The need for charity is everywhere....Charity is having patience with someone who has let us down; it is resisting the impulse to become offended easily. It is accepting weaknesses and shortcomings. It is accepting people as they truly are. It is looking beyond physical appearances to attributes that will not dim through time. It is resisting the impulse to categorize others."

Love it, love it, love it!!! I am so excited to hear more of the words of my Heavenly Father through His servants this weekend! Happy feasting, everyone!

(You can read or watch the entire Relief Society meeting by going to lds.org.)

Lessons From Eve

I love this by Elder Russell M. Nelson.....

"As Adam bore the responsibilities of fatherhood, so Eve bore the responsibilities of motherhood. She did not shirk them. So with welcome arms you may gratefully greet those children God may send, through your divine design as cocreator. With your husband, be obedient to the commandment to multiply and replenish the earth, as your opportunity, your spiritual guidance, your wisdom, and your health allow. You will gain joy and rejoicing in your posterity. That enrichment becomes more beautiful and precious with each passing year.
For you childless sisters and those without companions, remember the eternal timetable of the Lord is much longer than the lonely hours of your preparation or the total of this mortal life. These are only as microseconds when compared to eternity. Your willingness and worthiness are surely known to Him. The spiritual rewards of motherhood are available to all women. Nurturing the young, comforting the frightened, protecting the vulnerable, teaching and giving encouragement need not- and should not- be limited to our own children.
Sisters, be patient. I know something of the pressures you feel. Your kitchens are too small. Your budgets are too tight. Demands upon you exceed your capacity to help all you cry out to you. Through it all, "Improve the shining moments; Don't let them pass you by"(Hymns, 1985, no. 226). Take time for spiritual regeneration.
I'll share a few lines that have sustained Sister Nelson through the years. They also reflect her sense of priority:

Cleaning and scrubbing can wait 'til tomorrow.
For babies grow up,
We've learned to our sorrow.
So quiet down, cobwebs.
Dust, go to sleep.
I'm rocking my baby,
And babies don't keep.

I'm glad Sister Nelson has not tried to be a "supermom". But she has been a "soothing" mom. This she has done simply by being herself. When priorities are in place, one can more patiently tolerate unfinished business."

Lessons from Eve by Elder Russell M. Nelson given November 1987
http://lds.org/ldsorg/v/index.jsp?hideNav=1&locale=0&sourceId=6a5079356427b010VgnVCM1000004d82620a____&vgnextoid=2354fccf2b7db010VgnVCM1000004d82620aRCRD

Degrees

I love my calling at church. I get to teach the 16-18 year old young women. They are really wonderful girls and today I had such a neat experience teaching them. We were talking about Lehonti in the Book of Mormon and how he was poisoned by degrees. He started out on the top of a mountain and refused to come down, but he gradually listened to the enticings of his enemy and was eventually overtaken and killed. I read to them a quote by Sister Elaine Dalton about how we as women and men could be poisoned 'by degrees' today, to be deceived and led astray in many different ways. She said,

"What could be more deceptive that to entice women, young and old, you and me, to be so involved in ourselves, our looks, our clothes, our body shape and size that we lose sight of our divine identity and our ability to change the world through our virtuous influence?"

As I looked into the eyes of these beautiful young women in front of me, I was overwhelmed with the great purpose that they and each of us as women have. I was so grateful to be able to bear my testimony to those sweet girls about what it means to be a woman and what our divine identity is. We are destined to be mothers for eternity....to be nurturers forever! What a magnificent purpose! I am so sad when I hear what the world tells us is important. I feel so sad when women have to prove that they are more than just mothers. What could possibly be more?! Whether we are mothers physically on this earth, or mothers in the heart, women are mothers! Motherhood is not just the act of bearing and raising children, it is a state of being. I think that mothering is love and that love extends far beyond our own families. I think that every woman has this gift of mothering in her....we either choose to nurture those feelings and learn how to develop our abilities to love and soothe and bless and serve, or we choose to quench those feelings and drown them out with the voices of the world. I believe, with Sister Dalton, that women who know and embrace their divine role can change the world through our virtuous influence! I want to lift my voice to the world and shout that I rejoice in my womanhood! I love being a woman! I want to choose to listen to the truth about who I am and not be deceived by the lies of satan, however small a degree of a lie it may be.

The Power of the Mommy Instinct

I am sure a lot of you have heard about this story. There is a woman in Australia who delivered her twins premature at 27 weeks. Her daughter lived, but the doctors said that her son was dead. They handed him to her wrapped in a blanket. She unwrapped him and put him on her chest and held him. She talked to him and cuddled him and fed him some breastmilk on her finger and he started to breathe again! He totally recovered and is now a healthy 5 month old baby. I love this story! This woman didn't listen to the doctors, she listened to the spirit....even if she didn't know that was who she was listening to:) Heavenly Father works in amazing and beautiful ways!

You can read the article here...

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/health/article-1306283/Miracle-premature-baby-declared-dead-doctors-revived-mothers-touch.html

Voice of the Spirit

I love this truth! I am so grateful that Heavenly Father doesn't leave us alone on the earth. I am so grateful for the gift of the Holy Ghost and the peace that I felt as I watched this, and the strength that it is to my testimony every time I hear the words of God.

Nourishment

I am pregnant again! Because of this wonderful blessing, I am constantly reminded of the need my physical body has for nourishment, and with a little one growing inside me, the need for nourishment is greatly increased, and cannot be ignored:) I was thinking about this tonight as I was feeling ravenously hungry (after eating just 2 hours earlier)....and then I thought about my need for spiritual nourishment. Just as my physical body needs more nourishment when I am feeding and growing a baby, I believe that my spirit needs more nourishment because I am a mother. It is my job to nurture my children and my husband, and to provide an environment where they can be spiritually nourished daily, by the Spirit of the Lord. In order to do this most important work, my own spirit must be fed constantly throughout the day.
Elder Dallin H. Oaks spoke about spiritual nourishment- what it is and how we obtain it.
He said, "God reveals Himself and His eternal truths- the spiritual food that the scriptures call the bread of life and the living water- to those who seek, who serve, who keep His commandments, and who wait and listen in humility for His teaching. Study and reason are appropriate to begin this process, but "the things of God cannot be learned solely by study and reason. Despite their essential and beneficial uses, the methods of study and reason are insufficient as ways of approaching God and understand the doctrines of His gospel. We cannot come to know the things of God while rejecting or failing to use the indispensable method God has prescribed to learn these things. The things of God must be learned in His own way, through faith in God and revelation from the Holy Ghost." (Dallin H. Oaks, Nourishing the Spirit [1996])

He goes on to emphasize just how important the role of a parent is in helping their children to be spiritually nourished. "Among the most important things parents can do for their children is to provide them with worthy examples and with opportunities for personal religious experiences. Statistical studies of Church members in North America show that the example of parents is the most important single factor in shaping the behavior and beliefs of youth. These studies also show that family experiences are the strongest methods of affecting religious behavior- clearly exceeding the effect of Church activities."

I am so grateful for the organization of the Church that guides me on how to have a personal relationship with Jesus Christ. For He is the Living Water and the Bread of Life, and it is only through Him that our spirits can be filled and renewed every day. I am grateful to be a woman and for how Heavenly Father reaches out to me and teaches me so lovingly and personally through my every day responsibilities.