Valerie J. Steimle
This weekend I have a stake singles activity to head, a Primary sharing time lesson to give, and a family home evening lesson to present to a group of singles in another ward. Hmmmmm…….
How do I get all the inspiration to do all of this stuff? I can’t delegate it because I’m the one they have delegated to, so I just deal with it by coming up with something. It usually turns out okay but in the time before I actually do it; it’s very nerve wracking.
For example, I was asked to teach a Relief Society Lesson last Sunday and had plenty of time to prepare. I knew that I didn’t have enough material for the whole forty minutes but as much as I tried to find more things to talk about and plan the lesson, it ended at fifteen minutes before the hour and I had nothing else to say. I told the Relief Society President that was the whole lesson. So she got up and talked bit about some of the sister we were to pray for and announced that we would just end early. Just at that time, our Bishop opened the door and looked in. I breathed a sigh of relief as did the Relief Society President. The Bishop asked what was going on because we all reacted when he opened the door.
He told us that he was sitting in the Priest Quorum and all of a sudden the Spirit told him to get up and walk down the hallway. So he did and ended up in our room telling us a spiritual message we wouldn’t have gotten if I hadn’t of ended early. That was really cool.
So inspiration comes even when we don’t know why we are doing what we are doing. We just have to follow it.
I believe it’s the same with our writing. We sit and type all day at our computers trying to write something worthy to be read but we are never quite sure if we have accomplished our goal. Until we get feedback from a happy reader, we will never know. Nevertheless, we should continue in what we feel the urge to write about, taking our ideas from our own lives and what we have observed in other people. You never know how your thoughts will help another.
So my point being, we should ponder and meditate on what lesson to present in family home evening and Primary, brainstorm your plans for an activity and when you feel that you have done all that you could in preparing, just go with it and hope that it will help someone else.
And Valerie here's the oddest part of all, the lessons I slaved over were usually treated with good job; and the ones where I had to have the Spirit help out and I jumped in, went swimmingly. Odd that isn't it?
ReplyDeleteYes, that is odd. If we could only just rely on the Spirit all the time, maybe that would work out better.
ReplyDeleteI remember running out of things to say before a meeting ended, but just threw out a question and the class took over. For the last several years I've never had time to finish, which is sometimes even more frustrating. As my husband says,jut ask,
ReplyDelete"What difference will it make in a hundred years?" If you think it might make a differece by then, work at it. If it won't, just don't sweat it.
And yes, go by the spirit. That's how you'll know. Anyway, I try. And I'm learning not to sweat the small stuff.
don't yo just love the way the spirit works! I remember giving a lesson in YW once for which I prayerfully prepared. As I prayed to reach just one YW, it occurred to me that it was okay to ask to be able to reach all the YW that day. I'll never forget the feeling that washed over me as I prayed. After the lesson, one of the other advisors approached me and asked me to repeat a comment I made during the lesson. I couldn't remember the comment...and it wasn't anywhere in my written notes. It had been something that had come from the Spirit and had deeply touched that sister.
ReplyDelete