Last night I was privileged to speak at our wards enrichment night last night. I spent so much time on my knees pleading to my Heavenly Father to help me, to guide me to say what he needed these women to hear. I was incredibly nervous to be standing in front of them. But, when I got up there things seemed to flow well. I thought I would post my notes from last night here so I could preserve them. The quotes and scriptures I used are underneath. I also had a separate piece of paper with more stories of charity from my family and friends to use if I did not get some participation.
I want to ask you a question and have you write down our response, you don’t need to show it to anyone just keep it to your self and then we will come back tot he answers at the end of our discussion.
WHAT IS CHARITY?
One of the scriptures that I love the most is 1Corinthians
I am so grateful to the saints in corinth and there struggles because we learn so much from them.
Paul is writing to the church in Corinth,
Problems, immorality, schisms in the church, doctrinal questions, AND spiritual gifts were being misunderstood..
So in answer to this we get one of the most beautifully written passages I THINK in all literature. The gifts of the spirit chapters which comprise chapters 12-16 of first Cor.
We are going to focus on the 13th chapter
(I filled in the blanks before we began because I don't like calling on people who are not prepared)
____________ will you read it for us please Chapter 1 vs 2
-Is faith all we need for salvation ---- not according to Paul!
_______________ will you please read the next verse for us verse 3
The language of the scripture get kind of intense at times. But it does teach us an awful lot. If You were to give away all your earthly possessions or be burned (which I can only think he is relating this to animal sacrifices in some way,) It will do you NO GOOD unless you have Charity.
Paul goes on to define Charity for us
___________ will read verses 4-7
THESE BRING ME BACK TO THE BEATTITUDES we learn from Christ in his sermon on the mount.
In the life and teachings of Jesus Christ manual We get some other translations for the word Paul uses and we can get a deeper sense of the beauty in his meaning here.
For example.
vs 4 the word vaunt in Greek means "braggart"
vs. 5 easily provoked becomes irritable, or exasperated
vs. 5 thinketh becomes reckons or takes account of
Paul goes on to teach us that Charity never faileth, although prophecies may, but Charity never will.
So how do we get the deeper meaning of what Charity really is.
I think as women we tend to judge ourselves pretty harshly
-Remember Elder Uchdorfs. talk about his wife and the eggs and toast. We should be celebrating when we don't burn the toast!!
We judge ourselves sometimes so much that we in turn tend to think others must be judging us as well. And this becomes such a vicious cycle. in our lives that we don’t even see sometimes what we are doing.
-Have you ever had someone knock on your door, maybe even a friend (a good friend) and you pretend your not home because maybe your house is no quite clean.
-Have you ever made delicious treats and wanted to take them to someone but, darn you are out of that pretty ribbon so instead you eat them all yourself.
-Have you ever seen someone in the grocery store and hid behind the bananas because you didn’t have your hair done or makeup on
----I then put up a measuring stick and we wrote down the things we judge ourselves one. Some of the answers I got were, Home, parenting ability, looks, spirituality,....
Then I took the measuring stick and put it under my feet. The only person we are to measure ourselves against is the Savior and there Is NO WAY we will ever be perfected until the next life.
------ There is no measuring stick. ---------
That’s is such a small step toward Charity, but until we stop judging ourselves we Can NEVER HOPE TO STOP JUDGING OTHERS!!
I want to tell you some stories and it you guys can think of any from your own lives let me know.....
-A story once in music and the spoken word was told about an elderly couple the women was going blind and could no longer paint her finger nails so , her husband would do it for her and he did.... every week for 5 years
-Joseph Smith, young boy... A boy was looking for his brother in Nauvoo he was invited into the prophets home and was taken care of for the night and then the prophet arranged for him to have a coach ride the next 8 miles to his brother.. It was not until later that this boy came to know he was helped by the mormon prophet
-Joe’s Grandmother was in a horrible accident which killed her husband. After she got out of the rehab center Joe got a letter from her on his mission. It opened with Dear Joseph I felt good today so I got up and went visiting teaching and now I am writing you a letter
-My quilt, during a particularly hard Christmas the members of our ward took car of my family and made all of us beautiful quilts for Christmas. They took the time to think about what we would like and then matched accordingly the fabric they choose for each of us.
QUOTE BY MARVIN J. ASHTON
We have the legacy of RS to help us get there!!
The relief society’s legacy
-1842 began by helping men build the temple
-1843 visiting committees formed
break after death of J.S.
1854 Indian Relief societies formed under council of Brigham Young.
-1866 reorganized with Eliza R. Snow as President.
-1876 begin a grain storage program
-1882 Open Deseret hospital
1918 At the end of WW1 the relief society sells 205,518 bushels of wheat to the united stated government and establishes a fund to purchase more wheat in the future
1921 National concern for health care causes R.S. to take wheat storage interest to fund hundreds of health care clinics for expectant mothers, babies, and preschool children. Sisters in European missions prepare maternity chests for needy mothers and home deliveries
1936 Church welfare plan established RS responsible for preserving food, providing clothing, and bedding and teaching welfare principles to the sisters
1940-1845 send clothing, food, and thousands of quilts to help saints in Europe.
1978 RS transfers 266,291 bushels of wheat and nearly 2 million dollars to the first presidency for welfare program.
1999 do you remember the service of the millennium project 1,999 hours of service to humanitarian aide in one evening.
March 2000 there are more than 4 million members in over 160 countries worldwide.
What a heritage we have!
In one meeting where lucy Mack smith was in attendance she was heard to say:
LUCY SMITH QUOTE____________________________
We can get there we can draw on the experiences of the sisters around us to help us guide our way to Turn our hearts so they are forever changed. So that we put aside the things that don’t really matter and get back to what does.
---- Do we want to have others see us in a way that when they look at us they see their Savior Jesus Chirst.
I am going to read the final quote from elder eyering at our last RS general meeting
TESTIMONY!!!
1 Cor. 13:2
And though I have the gift of prophesy, and I understand all mysteries, and all knowledge; and though I have all faith, so that I could remove mountains, and have not charity, I am nothing.
1 Cor. 13:2
And though I bestow all my goods to feed the poor, and though I give my body to be burned, and have not charity, it profiteth me nothing.
1Cor. 13:4-7
Charity suffereth long, and is kind; charity envieth not;charity vaunteth not itself, is not puffed up, Doth not behave itself unseemly, seeketh not her own, is not easily provoked, thinketh no evil; Rejoiceth not in iniquity, but rejoiceth in the truth; beareth all things, believeth all things, hopeth all things, endureth all things
“Charity is, perhaps, in many ways a misunderstood word. We often equate charity with visiting the sick, taking in casseroles, to those in need, or sharing our excess withthose who are less fortunate. But, really, true charity is much, much more.
Real charity is not something you give away; it is something that you aquire and make a part of yourself. And when the virtue of charity becomes implanted in your heart, you are never the same again. “
Marvin J. Ashton
“We must cherish [and] watch over one another, comfort one another and gain instruction that we may all sit down in heaven together”
Lucy Smith
“You pass the heritage along as you help others receive the gift of charity in their hearts. Then they will be able to pass it to others. The history of Relief Society is recorded in words and numbers, but the heritage is passed heart to heart. That is why families are such beneficiaries of Relief Society. ...... You have a glorious heritage. I pray to God that he will inspire you to preserve it and pass it on as a legacy to bless and bring joy to those in the generations and the seasons to come. “
Henry B. Eyering
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