Relief Society

I love Relief Society. Always have, since becoming a member at the ripe old age of 18. Actually 17 since I was graduated from high school and had left home by then.

This past Sunday we had a nice treat in our regular Sunday meeting of the ladies in our ward. Our RS president, Jackie, is a good friend of mine. She used to be one of my "Walkie-Talkie" buddies, and she's been my visiting teacher. Just an all-around good friend. It was her turn to teach the lesson on Sunday, so she shared with us a little tidbit about each of us is a part of the "Whole" of Relief Society and our ward. We did a little exercise and saw what we could discover about a painting just by looking at the subject and what that inferred to us. (Happiness, satisfaction, simplicity, joy, etc.) It set a nice tone. And then she did something that might not work in every ward, but it worked very well in ours. And she was very brave to do this. She had us go around the room and tell what we knew about the sister sitting right next to us. What were her talents and strengths that we knew of? What did we know GOOD about this sister? And everyone DID know good things! If the one sitting next to someone didn't know much, others chimed in. We knew we only had about 30 seconds to say what we needed to, and we did get all the way around the room. We have a back row of "classy" older women in our ward. They've been back there forever, but are full of wit and wisdom. We have younger sisters with young families who have known each other since Kindergarten!! Same neighborhood all those years. We have mothers and daughters, friends and neighbors, good friends, old friends, new friends. It was really fun and what I would call a "Feel Good" time.

We all need to remember to focus on positive things more often, especially about others. And doesn't it feel good when someone notices that we really are good at " fill-in-the-blank."? So smile and say something nice about the sister sitting next to YOU!