i'm now a teacher
...for relief society, that is. i just got sustained this past sunday, and it's exciting and nerve-wracking for me. this is the first time i have had such a "hefty" calling in a family ward, and especially from someone who has not had children yet.
anyway, i will be teaching my first lesson this upcoming sunday. it will be on "strengthening family." i will be using the manual, plus talks from previous publications and such. but i wanted to try something a little different and use my friends and readers as examples and support for this. i think it will help strengthen me spiritually, as well as give me an opportunity to learn more about each of you on a different level.
does anyone have some good stories or references for "strengthening family?"
**ooh, btw, what did everyone think of sister beck's talk at conference today? my mother-in-law had one reaction. i had tuned out when she made one particular comment, so i wasn't as affected by it. plus, it seemed to focus on mothers and their role a bit more which took me out of the picture. (i guess i could have thought of my mother, though.) anyway, i just want to know. i'm not meaning to argue or anything, because i think it is important to support those called by our prophet. but...i also think it is important to lead and follow by the spirit, and i got a weird meaning out of the message.
5 comments:
I'm curious to know what other people thought about that talk too...something didn't sit quite right with me.
was it the whole "send their kids to church with ironed clothes and missionary haircuts" part?
because my immediate reaction to that was to start getting angry, especially when i thought of the poor women who have like 8 kids and can barely get them dressed much less iron all their crap. although i'm tried (and am trying) really hard to listen to her message and not just her words.
my mother-in-law was really saddened by it. she has had 5 kids, of which only 2 are active in the church. she feels that she did the best that she could raising them, and she just felt really "condemned" by the message--that she was basically a crappy mother.
i only half-listened to sister beck, but i definitely didn't like how she almost demanded that all sisters be a certain way. everyone's situations are different. everyone comes from different backgrounds and upbringings. i think she failed to say that we should all raise our children with the gospel and with the spirit and provide the best opportunities that we could. she missed out on the compassionate part of her calling.
My comment is kind of what I think Sister Beck was talking about and kind of material for your lesson. My mom is super loyal to her family. She will jump in front of a bus for each of her children. I'm serious, she would jump in front of four different buses to save all four of her children. I guess what I mean is she has children and she takes her job very seriously. Yet, she's a working mother and has been since I was in the 2nd grade and I'm the second oldest in my family. It goes, boy, girl, boy, girl.
Anyways, she was very serious about the gospel being apart of our lives and having family apart of our lives. I guess I love the gospel because I can always be with my family. Even though my brother doesn't have anything to do with the church anymore, he wants everything to do with the family. He flew out to my son's blessing and came to church, even though he could only sit through the blessing and peaced out immediately. He knew it meant a lot to me. I blame his love and my love for family on my mom. Our family has fun together and we love to laugh together. This is because my mom made us eat dinner together. We always made it to dinner time and the food was always good and the company twice as good. I think that little time of the day set away made all the difference in the world.
Mo
My favorite line from her talk was "Mothers who know do less."
As a mother, woman, member of the church, I was inspired to do the "best" things with my time instead of just the "good" (from Elder Oaks talk).
Plus, am a slack homemaker and it was nice for me to get the push to make my home a house of order.
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