In His Service - Lessons Learned in My Service as a Relief Society President

Lesson2: He Lives

I can't count the number of times I have witnessed this truth over the last three years. I can't say that I witnessed any huge miraculous events, but I definitely saw His hand in many, many small and simple things.

At one time I kept thinking of a woman in my ward.For no particular reason, her name kept coming up in conversations and she kept popping into my mind. It turned out that one of my counselors was having the same experience. We scheduled an appointment to visit with her. At first everything was fairly casual as we caught up on the daily comings and goings of her life. But by the end, we knew exactly why we were there. She needed someone to listen to her and to love her. We couldn't fix her problems for her, but at least we were aware of them now and could support her through them.

As I went home that day, I felt the power and love of my Savior. I knew that He had a hand in this work. This wonderful woman needed to feel His love and He sent us to give it to her.

This experience has been repeated on several occasions with other women throughout my time in His service. The events may not have been grand but the accumulation of these experiences is more than I could ever create on my own. He Lives and He is a present and active force in our lives, We can KNOW this for ourselves simply by paying attention to these small and simple things.


I know my Savior lives.

In His Service - Lessons Learned in My Service as a Relief Society President

Lesson 1: You Love Those that You Serve


Nothing builds love quite like service. Think about your children. Who else do you devote more of your time and energy to than them? Sure, there might be a genetic link - blood ties - but surely that growing  love that continues to get stronger each day and each year is born of your complete dedication to your child.

That's the kind of love that comes from serving. When we serve someone, we become invested in a good outcome for them. When we add prayer and purpose to our service, the love and results are that much stronger.

I don't have many issues with many people. I really and truly get along well with most people that I meet. My feelings for each person aren't always equal, however. It's normal to "click" with some people more than with others. Before I got called as the ward Relief Society president, there was a woman who I didn't quite "click" with. It wasn't that I didn't like her... I just didn't know her very well. I thought she seemed nice enough but that she wasn't anyone I could really be friends with. As a Relief Society president, I was given a love for each sister under my stewardship. It was easy to love them. I could feel of my Savior's love for these women. But, that doesn't mean I "clicked" with all of them - including this one particular sister. Until, that is, I had the opportunity to personally serve her. My concern for her took over any other hesitations I had had previously. That service bore a great love and understanding of this woman that I am incredibly grateful for.

If there is someone that you are having a hard time understanding or getting along with - take the time to do some kind acts of service. Even something as simple as praying for them can truly go a long way at helping you to see past the minor irritations and annoyances to the deeper goodness that lies within most people.

When has an act of service caused a change of heart for you? Share your comments below... or write a blog post and link it up here for others to read.

A New Chapter and a Mixed Bag of Emotions

Today I was released from a church calling that I've served in for the last three years of my life. (For those that don't understand, a calling is kind of like volunteer work that we don't volunteer for. We willingly serve because we believe it is our duty to God.) This calling has been heavy at times and yes, I do feel some measure of relief. But I also feel incredibly sad, unsettled, anxious, excited, and more than anything - grateful.

I have had the amazing opportunity to serve the women in my ward, to learn from them, to cry with them, to pray for them and to watch them grow. In the meantime, it has been me that has probably grown the most. I have been so blessed. I have grown to love these women so much and I am incredibly sad for this chapter of my life to be over. I will miss visiting these women in their homes and caring for their needs. I know our friendship doesn't end with this assignment but the dynamics will surely change.

With this release will come a loss of divine inspiration that was definitely present and needed for me to be able to serve in this capacity. And oh how I will miss it. I have felt the love of my Savior constantly for the last three years. I know He still loves me and I know He will provide other opportunities for me to serve. I look forward to those opportunities because more than anything, I have learned the value of service. Whenever we give of ourselves, it is given back to us tenfold.

I am so grateful for the women I have been able to serve with. They are some of my very best friends. I have learned that we love the people we serve and we love the people we serve with. I love these women and am grateful for all of the wonderful memories that I get to take with me and the deep friendships.

I have put together a series of posts about what I have learned in this service. They are probably more for mine and my family's sake, but I hope you will oblige me by allowing me to post them here to share with whomever may wish to read them. I think there is something for everyone in these posts. And then we can get back to the laughter and mayhem of everyday living with four soon-to-be-five kids and one chaotic work-from-home mommy.

I wish I would have taken more pictures!!

Signs of Aging -- Never!

So, the other day Lil' Mama and I are driving and she turns to me and says, "Ooh, mom, you have a gray hair. Right there, I see it."

.....Pause for dramatic effect.....

So, I did what any self respecting woman my age would do --- I DENIED IT, of course. And then I plucked it out when she wasn't looking!

Time to visit my hair dresser.


This, by the way, is a first for me. I guess I can't complain... I made it to 34, but oh how I'd hoped to hold out for a little while longer.

What do you do to hide or prevent those pesky signs of your true age from showing? Do you prefer to embrace it or deny, deny, deny?

I'm back

After trying out WordPress, I've decided to come on back to Blogger. I'm sure some of you will disagree but the truth is that I'm just too dang busy to figure out WordPress. Maybe one of these days I'll get it and want to switch again, but for now I'm all about keeping it simple. Blogger is simple enough for a techno-phobe like me.

Over the next couple of days, I'll be attempting to transfer over my WordPress posts and then watch for some new posts... I've got a couple in the works.

Hope to chat with you soon!

One last camping trip before school starts

The other day I fell asleep to the sound of my kids playing a board game (in a friendly manner, even). In the morning, they decided they wanted to play some more. This is what I love about family vacations - even if it's just a camping trip. It's that sweet time of unwinding and leaving all of our obligations behind. No housework, no bills, no catching up on work, no neighborhood friends knocking on the door at all hours of the day.
Don't get me wrong, we have a great arrangement in our day-to-day lives. My husband has decent work hours, I work from home and my kids' friends are fantastic. But there's something about not having the option of playing with friends that forces my kids to appreciate one another. And there's nothing sweeter than watching your kids enjoy each others' company and get along.
Here are some pictures from our camping trip:

Show-Off and The Queen getting along!

An exhausted Lo-Lo passed out in the canoe

Yum-Yum going back to his roots, LOL... he was born in the jungle!

A homemade swing!

What do you love most about family vacations?

Much Needed: Help Cleaning House

I've slipped again on my housekeeping. I've mentioned before that I can only seem to keep up on so many things at one time. My work is doing fine, thank-you, and I'm getting back into the swing of things with my church responsibilities. But my housework is SCREAMING at me... I need HELP cleaning house!

And now that school is starting soon, I can no longer afford to neglect it.
So, I'm jumping back on the bandwagon with a great system I found a few months ago at a blogging conference that I went to. I met an amazing woman, named Marie Ricks, whose business is geared to poor, pathetic, unorganized and distracted girls like me that need help cleaning house. She created the House of Order system to make getting your house in order a simple, manageable process.

I started using the system back in May and saw a HUGE difference in a matter of days. The system is relatively simple, but that's the magic. Even though I mocked the program for a long time (because it utilizes a bunch of index cards - one more thing for me to lose), it's pretty easy to follow and it makes a noticeable difference.

Basically, Marie gives you a few tasks that need to be done on a daily basis: tidy the kitchen, a load of laundry, empty the dishwasher, etc. If you do these things every day, they only take a short amount of time and your house will stay presentable, at the very least.

There are also weekly, monthly and quarterly tasks for an even deeper clean and more orderly home. The beauty is that you can start where you are and build up as quickly or as slowly as you need to. I never got past the weekly tasks (and I didn't even always do those), but my house was getting more organized, I was finally catching up with laundry and I felt comfortable having unexpected visitors.

Some of you, no doubt, will think it's silly to need a system or help cleaning house. But others of us (and there's more of us than you would think) really need the guidance and structure. Marie is patient and kind and she really knows her stuff.

So, my new school year resolution is to pick it back up and get things in order before all of the school papers start to pile up again and take over our lives. I'll let you know how it goes...

What do you do to keep your home orderly without spending all day to do it? Really, please comment - I NEED all the help I can get.
(Photo courtesy of BoredLA.com)