Deanna invited us to think about our feelings about Relief Society and we came up with some similarities and differences between early Relief Society members when the church was founded and our Relief Society today.
Similarities
-Husbands in school and working full time - it seems like I never see my husband and that he might as well be in another state on a mission! we need friends that we can have in relief society.
- Struggles that come with being a woman: kids, understanding your worth and sometimes you just need another sister to talk with.
-Financial struggles: we're all in pretty much the same circumstances financially in our ward - we can relate to one another.
-Same spiritual problems: women connect in a way that men don't understand/ sisters can help one another with spiritual difficulties in a special way.
Differences
- Things that we are dealing with, hardships and heartaches, back then may have been more visible, like crossing the plains in a wooden cart: things are more hidden now/ we need to recognize them with each other as a Relief Society.
- We're veering from what the core values are as a Relief Society/ need to stick together and learn from our differences.
- We're veering from what the core values are as a Relief Society/ need to stick together and learn from our differences.
-Don't feel like you won't be here in the ward (Relief Society), long - act like yo'll be here a long time and work to be involved.
Speaking of the women of the Church, President Snow said, “It is difficult to imagine what we should have done, or what progress the work of the Lord would have made, without them.” We as women contribute to the work of the Lord as we participate in the work of the Relief Society.
Deanna challenged us to think about Relief Society as an everyday part of our lives, not just something that is on Sunday. But what is the relief Society besides a group of women who belong to the restored church?
President Lorenzo Snow:
The mission of the Relief Society is to succor the distressed, to minister to the sick and feeble, to feed the poor, to clothe the naked, and to bless all the sons and daughters of God. No institution was ever founded with a nobler aim. Its basis is true charity, which is the pure love of Christ [seeMoroni 7:47], and that spirit has been manifested in all the ministrations of the Society among the people. The Apostle James said that “pure religion and undefiled before God and the Father is this: To visit the fatherless and widows in their affliction, and to keep himself unspotted from the world.” [James 1:27.] Accepting that as true, the members of the Relief Society have most surely exemplified in their lives pure and undefiled religion; for they have ministered to those in affliction, they have thrown their arms of love around the fatherless and the widows, and they have kept themselves unspotted from the world. I can testify that there are no purer and more God-fearing women in the world than are to be found within the ranks of the Relief Society.2
Purposes of the Relief Society in Our Everyday Lives:
-Offer each other different perspectives/strengthened by each other.
- Come here and build one another/ comforting to relate to sister here in Relief Society/ saints needed to feed off each other council.
-As the world divide between wrong and right gets smaller, need to support one another.
-United as a Relief Society band together in our special attributes
-Visiting teaching duties and blessings: knowing someone cares
-"Relief" covers emotional, spiritual, physical ways: Charity = Spirit of Christ
- Providing for those in need: In our time and with charity (love): can't withhold it from anyone.
- We can connect and teach in only a way a woman could: we communicate differently
- Focus on the theme of Relief Society: close to the Young Women's theme: covers every purpose.
-Everyone is going through things: it's important to do visiting teaching or just take time do small things for one another, even though we all look like we're fine on the outside, we all need support.
How we contribute to the work of the Lord
-Ask husbands for blessings - husbands continuing to be worthy in the priesthood
-Restoration not complete until women were organized into the Relief Society: use our gifts and talents in the family.
-How we train up our children/ how you raise children: those who could be priesthood leaders/ contribute to the kingdom of God.
-Strength given to fellow sisters/ we're meant to gain strength from others/ have an open heart and open mind/ increase our faith and righteousness.
How Relief Society women exemplified charity
-women are so often down on ourselves but Relief Society, each woman, contributes to service.
How have you been blessed by the Relief Society
-helping other women raise their families by giving unselfish service.
-How you learn to listen to the promptings of the Lord/ how you learn to love those around you and all those you meet.
-Going out of their way and finding joy in serving others
- You can find your best friends here too who also share similar experiences/ opportunity to find those who have common traits/ stepping out of comfort zone.
Why is the influence of pure motherhood (that all women are capable of exerting, not only women with children) so needed in the world?
- The world needs women who are kind gentle and loving (sister Beck quote)/ true femininity
- You don't know if maybe you'll be the one that someone will connect with
- The world is distracting many women from what the gospel tells us our divine roles are.
- Women have a more gentle influence: a lot of changes can happen by small ways and kind words, we can help children and inspire others to change.
It is easy for a women to feel down on her self, discouraged, and to think she is not doing enough or that she can not make a difference in her own or the lives of others. President Snow spoke words of encouragement that apply to the women of the church today:
"I feel to say, God bless the officers and members of the Relief Society. You are performing a grand mission, and I would exhort you to not weary in well doing [see D&C 64:33]...This is what we desire to instill into the hearts of the sisters—to be useful in their sphere and not be discouraged because of difficulties in the way, but trust in God and look to Him, and His marvelous blessings, I promise you, will be poured out upon you. This shall be your experience. … Let me reiterate again, don’t be discouraged, but go on and accomplish good, exercise faith, and every opportunity that is presented seek to improve upon it. We want you to exercise all the talents that God has bestowed upon you. And there is this about it in reference to your prospects of success. When a person commences to travel over a path that the Lord has marked out, and by which to accomplish good in His interest, he is sure to succeed. He is precisely where God wants him to be, and there is the place that you may, with the greatest propriety, ask God for His blessing.7
Deanna concluded:
-We need to be prepared to answer questions about our role as women in the church and to help others.
-Know your role within the church.
-Come to Relief Society for ourselves as well as for others.
Lacey commented and concluded:
- My testimony of Relief Society didn't start out strong; let your testimony grow of Relief Society/ treat everyone by being prepared to help them.
Go here to read other quotes from President Snow in the manual and see related scriptures.
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