Sunday Moment- Developing Talents

I forgot to report on my last lesson- and now I have already taught again.

Last month my lesson was on Developing Talents.

I shared with the sisters that I can sing pretty well- I have a very hard time doing that in public but that I had recently began working on it by singing in the choir.  I have only managed to perform with the choir once but I had done it. I told them my hives story. My mom made me sing for New Beginnings.  I wore a long, white Gunne Sax dress with tiny purple rosebuds on it.  My skin was bright red with lumps and blotches on it.  The sisters were sympathetic :)

We discussed those talents which are more hidden- or rather- less visible.  One sister raised her hand and said one of her talents was that she could talk to a stump-  and she can talk to anybody.  I shared how this same sister now had my former calling and how much fun Youngest was having learning new skills and doing things that I wouldn't have necessarily done. Her gifts and mine are different and yet they are both able to bless the lives of the young girls in our ward.

Another sister mentioned how years ago she was once called to lead the singing, which she knew very little about, but that she had taken the opportunities available to learn more and more, and now feels very confident in leading music.

We discussed how our talents were given to us for the benefit of others and how we each have certain gifts, and the chance as well as obligation to increase our gifts and add to things by our own work and effort.

I can't remember everything that we discussed- but I handed out a challenge card to list three talents that they could work on improving or that they wanted to gain-  I promised a treat :)

Sunday Moment- Charity

 I finally- after 4 months- taught a lesson in RS a week ago and thought I would share.


This was not an easy lesson for me because I am not at charity with some people. I was honest in teaching, although one sister who is taking the missionary discussions and married into a family that the DR has hometaught for years came up and asked me how I have it all together (WHAT A JOKE) I told her I most certainly do NOT have it all together. She was pretty emotional because they are on the receiving end of a lot of good works right now and that can be tough on the pride.

I started out by asking them to define CHARITY. As expected, the first and main response was the pure love of Christ. I asked them what they thought they would find if they looked it up in a regular dictionary. Webster's- "benevolent good will toward - or love of humanity". In the Bible Dictionary it reads, " the highest, noblest, strongest kind of love; not merely affection. The pure love of (like unto ) Christ. It is never used to denote alms or deeds or benevolence, although it may be a prompting motive." I added the part in parenthesis because to me that can read that charity is our love for Christ, not Christ-like love.

Charity comes from a pure heart. We have pure love when we sincerely and from the heart show and have concern and compassion for all our brothers and sisters.
I used a story shared by President Monson in the October 2010 conference about a woman who constantly criticized her neighbor's washing, pointing out to her husband how it was dirty still and how that woman didn't know how to wash. Her husband could have joined her in the criticism, or even more so- started it first. One morning the woman was surprised to find that her neighbor had finally managed to wash her laundry and make it clean. When she commented on this to her husband, he replied that he had spent the morning washing the window.

We were taught by the Savior to "judge not"- "why beholdest thou the mote that is in thy brother's eye, but considerest not the beam that is in thy own eye".

None of us is perfect. Many times we judge others around us when we would not in a million years want to trade places with them. And we never will know how we would handle any given situation because we will never be in the exact same circumstances. The other thing to keep in mind while we are judging others is that we will be judged by whatever standard we choose to judge others by.

We talked about taking care of others needs. How it is not for us to decide if someone truly needs our assistance, it is for the Lord to decide. We talked about different types of need- both physical, spiritual, and also emotional- which just happens to go along with the VT message of the month- the purpose of RS.

We talked about the story of the Good Samaritan, and how Christ used the particular people for examples that he did.

I shared an example of being at Costco and a lady couldn't find the sour cream, and although I knew she could get an employee or continue looking herself, I backtracked and located it for her. I happened to be killing time waiting for the DR, but I told them I hoped I would have helped her even if I had been in a bigger hurry. I quoted President Monson, " Our opportunities to give of ourselves are indeed limitless, but they are also perishable", and I added that they are extremely so- the moment is there and then it is gone never to return in the exact way again. I think of  my mom a lot with this. She tries so hard to help others without thinking about what is in it for her.

Charity never faileth- it is there minute by minute. Christ- to the very end of his mortal life took care of others- made sure his mother was taken care of, pled for forgiveness for the soldiers, and loved all. Obviously, that didn't end with his death, it continues on.

How do we develop charity?

Study- life of Christ, use his example and teachings to learn how to live and apply to situations in our life. Become as a child, so quick to love and forgive our shortcomings.

Pray- when we have uncharitable feelings, we can immediately pray to have those feelings change. (personally working hard on this one)

Learn to love ourselves- understand our worth, respect and obey the principles and teachings of the gospel. Repent (we all need that every single day) and forgive ourselves. (Matthew 18: 33-35)

and

Don't think or believe that we are better than others-. "Wash our own windows" have patience, and most importantly realize that we don't know everything about anyone else's circumstances. I shared my experiences with comments made by people when we moved back here with only Outpatient and then things that people said when I showed up with a new baby not having gone through a pregnancy. Most of this ward is new to our family (well- in the last three years) many have never really met Outpatient because he was on his mission when it was formed and he went to the singles when he got back. Anyway- so I shared that to look at me- most of them don't know these things that I have experienced, other than my neighbor- who although she knows the stories, she doesn't know the feelings.

Anyway- if you would like some further reading (haha) President Monson's talk on Charity Never Faileth from October 2010 General Conference- and I also really liked a lot from this past conference- especially Lynn G Robbins talk- What Matter of Men and Women Ought Ye to Be?- that is the one from Sunday afternoon- the "TO DO- TO BE" talk-

Well- If you guessed

Relief Society Instructor- you would be right.

I know I will be nervous at the first-  but since I have had this calling before, it didn't scare the socks off me like it did the first time.

A little over 10 years ago-  I was expecting Youngest- Outpatient was turning 12, and Oldest and Middle were 3 and 2.  I was in the YW Presidency and figured that wasn't going to work out too well-  but I wouldn't have minded taking my three babies to Mutual- compared to being stared at by a bunch of women who had actually attended RS in their life- unlike me.  I am not kidding.  The only RS classes I had gone to were when I visited my mom or MIL-  Even when I visited my sister- I ended up substituting her ward's primary classes.

Anyway-  I was super intimidated and felt totally inadequate- but it was a wonderful experience and I ended up really enjoying it ( I am kind of into teaching).

I didn't teach for too long before I was called to do Activity Days-  (Oh the irony :)  )

I had a sweet and much older sister who was also called to be an instructor come up to commiserate with me-  only I wasn't much help I am afraid- other than to tell her I wasn't stressed this time.  Poor thing is stressing so much.  Why do we women do this to ourselves?  This is a sister looked up to and admired by many in the ward and she feels like everyone else is so much better able to be the instructor.  I will have to see if I can help her feel calmer somehow.

I had been told I would be teaching today-  but the other teacher had already prepared her lesson- so she went ahead and taught.  I now have a month to prepare the next lesson.  I would have rather taught this one :)  The next topic is about how work and personal responsibility. oh boy. Hope I don't offend more than half of the class :)