Why Is It Important For Me To Gain An Education And Develop Skills? (Part 2)

Get this week's lesson here.
If you want to check out how I presented this lesson last year, you can find it here.

I know I need to get better about less ME-TIME teaching and more GIRLS-TIME discussing.  Something that went surprisingly well this week was assigning each young woman a paragraph under Education in FOR THE STRENGTH OF YOUTH.  Then I gave them the opportunity to lead their own discussions about their paragraphs and they did awesome!  They applied it to their own lives and gave each other advice and it was just... awesome.

I decided this year that I wanted to make the girls an education "dream board" where they could hang anything that would motivate them to be enthusiastic about learning.  WARNING!  WARNING!  WARNING!  Chicken wire is EVIL.  Please wear work gloves when handling it so you don't look like you were playing patty-cake with Edward Scissorhands.  Found that one out the hard way.

I searched Pinterest for a bunch of great motivational pictures and LDS education quotes that the girls could choose between to add to their individual board.

Click here for Bucket List print out.

My inspiration behind making the dream boards came from here.  It gives you directions how to build it and everything!  So awesome!  I ended up buying long wood stakes from Home Depot for the frames that were about 30 cents each!  AMAZING!!!

Nephi's Lullaby

Don't you love those scripture days where your reading slams you in the face like an ultimate punch and pours into your heart like a bowl of warm tomato soup?  It is the BEST feeling in the world.

The other day I was reading in 2nd Nephi.  Chapter four is where Nephi is being extremely poetic and, I think, having some sort of emotional meltdown.  The kind we all have every now and then... where we are SO HARD on ourselves.

He talks about his soul lingering in the valley of sorrow.  "O wretched man that I am!"  You take a journey with him as he lists all these AMAZING blessings he has been given: God had led him through the wilderness, confounded his enemies, showed him visions, and filled him with love.  Even with all of this, Nephi still is imperfect and catches himself sinning.

Two things about this hit me...

First, I felt so sorry for Nephi and could relate.  That overwhelming feeling of guilt for our sins and imperfections is a very real thing.  And the words he used to describe his sorrow were so beautiful and straight from the heart.

Second, it kind of makes me feel better about myself.  If a prophet of the Lord still makes mistakes, then it's okay that I make them too.  Stop being so hard on yourself.  It is completely fine to not be flawless.  The Savior has given us the wonderful gift of the atonement so that we won't have to do this alone.

As I sensed the emotion in his words, I wanted his feelings to be translated into music.  The joy of his blessings, the sorrow of his imperfections, and the hope that, with the Lord's help, he could still endure.

So, I hopped on the piano and tried my best to translate what it meant to me.  Nephi would probably listen to it today and think, "Um, no Jess, you've totally misinterpreted what I was trying to say."  

Ha ha!  And that's okay.  This was still a big stepping stone for me.  The last time I wrote a song was in third grade with the title "Puppies in the Meadow" that I'm pretty sure could have been played with two fingers.  I'm grateful that Heavenly Father blesses me with tiny miracles like helping inspire me to try to write a new song.

PLEASE read the verses!!!  Feel his emotion.  Nephi is so amazing.

2 Nephi 4:16-35

16 Behold, my soul delighteth in the things of the Lord; and my heart pondereth continually upon the things which I have seen and heard.

 17 Nevertheless, notwithstanding the great goodness of the Lord, in showing me his great and marvelous works, my heart exclaimeth: O wretched man that I am! Yea, my heart sorroweth because of my flesh; my soul grieveth because of mine iniquities.

 18 I am encompassed about, because of the temptations and the sins which do so easily beset me.

 19 And when I desire to rejoice, my heart groaneth because of my sins; nevertheless, I know in whom I have trusted.

 20 My God hath been my support; he hath led me through mine afflictions in the wilderness; and he hath preserved me upon the waters of the great deep.

 21 He hath filled me with his love, even unto the consuming of my flesh.

 22 He hath confounded mine enemies, unto the causing of them to quake before me.

 23 Behold, he hath heard my cry by day, and he hath given me knowledge by visions in the night-time.

 24 And by day have I waxed bold in mighty prayer before him; yea, my voice have I sent up on high; and angels came down and ministered unto me.

 25 And upon the wings of his Spirit hath my body been carried away upon exceedingly high mountains. And mine eyes have beheld great things, yea, even too great for man; therefore I was bidden that I should not write them.

 26 O then, if I have seen so great things, if the Lord in his condescension unto the children of men hath visited men in so much mercy, why should my heart weep and my soul linger in the valley of sorrow, and my flesh waste away, and my strength slacken, because of mine afflictions?

 27 And why should I yield to sin, because of my flesh? Yea, why should I give way to temptations, that the evil one have place in my heart to destroy my peace and afflict my soul? Why am I angry because of mine enemy?

 28 Awake, my soul! No longer droop in sin. Rejoice, O my heart, and give place no more for the enemy of my soul.

...

 34 O Lord, I have trusted in thee, and I will trust in thee forever. I will not put my trust in the arm of flesh; for I know that cursed is he that putteth his trust in the arm of flesh. Yea, cursed is he that putteth his trust in man or maketh flesh his arm.

 35 Yea, I know that God will give liberally to him that asketh. Yea, my God will give me, if I ask not amiss; therefore I will lift up my voice unto thee; yea, I will cry unto thee, my God, the rock of my righteousness. Behold, my voice shall forever ascend up unto thee, my rock and mine everlasting God. Amen.

I know some people (like my nephew and my husband) learn music better by watching fingers than by reading sheet music.  Do you know how hard it is to get through an entire song without messing up when a camera's recording you? ...Unsuccessful.

Click HERE to download the sheet music


“We get nearer to the Lord through music than perhaps through any other thing except prayer.”
-- President J. Reuben Clark Jr., in Conference Report, Oct. 1936, 111

How Can I Prepare Now To Be A Righteous Wife And Mother?: Part Two

My momma - 1983

I love this lesson so much.  August is my favorite month in the Come Follow Me manual.  To see my post for this lesson from last year, please click below:

How Can I Prepare Now To Become A Righteous Wife And Mother?

CLICK HERE

This year I'm taking a different approach.  My main focus will be on the talk given by Elder L. Whitney Clayton - MARRIAGE: WATCH AND LEARN.

In it he states:

We can learn so much by watching and then considering what we have seen and felt. In that spirit, let me share with you a few principles I have observed by watching and learning from wonderful, faithful marriages.

I tried to ponder who in my life I have "watched and learned" from as wonderful examples of strong marriages.  There are my terrific parents, of course, who I owe so much to for always raising a peaceful, loving home.  There are also my grandparents.  I have never in my life witnessed a more enamored couple in love.  Mr. Darcy and Elizabeth, Romeo and Juliet, they've got NOTHING on my grandparents.  They are two souls with hearts intwined by an unbreakable connection of tenderness, selflessness, and celestial joy.

Taking sections from Elder Clayton's talk, I interviewed my grandparents and asked how these principles have helped build their relationship in their marriage.  Since they live eight hours away, I edited a video mixed with the general conference talk to share during class.  I'll assign each YW a principle from the talk and pause between each section to allow the girls to discuss what they read and what they learned from it.  I'm also made a version of the video (without my grandparents) HERE for people to use in their lessons.  You can choose a guest couple to come to class and interview them during your lesson, pausing between each section of the video...

Here are a few quotes from Mary N. Cook's Talk 

SEEK LEARNING: YOU HAVE A WORK TO DO

My challenge for the girls this week is to work on completing Good Works Value Experience #2 in their personal progress.

Service is an essential principle of family living. Help plan your family’s menus, obtain the food, and prepare part of the meals for two weeks. During that time help your family gather to share mealtimes. Report to your class what you have learned.

As motivation, I want to hand out at the end of class a meal time starter kit.  If they don't have two weeks to work on their Personal Progress at least they can plan one fun meal this week to surprise their families.  Their kit includes a meal chart, recipe ideas, and little candle lights for extra fanciness.... because everyone knows twinkling lights makes everything fancy ;)

I picked out a few recipes from Chef in Training and made notecard sized handouts to go with their kit below.

My Grandma Hutchings

Naida Cram Hutchings gave, without question, the most perfect grandmother hugs of all time.  As a little girl my body would melt into the soft skin of her loving arms.  In the glimmering surface of her eyes you could see the value she saw in you.  You always felt special and knew you were appreciated.  Her soul overflowed with so many Christ-like qualities of love and tenderness.  She was a soft-spoken individual with a soothing voice like calm water.  The light of her smile reached out and soaked into your heart, blanketing you from your worries and your fears.  She wasn’t afraid of silence.  I loved that about her.  There didn’t need to be the sound of talking and socializing filling the room to feel and know that you were loved by her.

She is a very real part of me.  I catch tiny drops of her personality that greet me throughout the day.   As I tilt my wrist to the side, I study the blue and green veins painted down my arms with comfort knowing the blood flowing through me was passed down through her.

I only remember seeing her cry once. It was when she talked about grandpa and how much she missed him.

This is maybe the first death where I’m old enough to truly understand death.  I’m finally beginning to realize that everyone has to die.  My innocent stage of unawareness has come to an end and my perspective has been tilted, realizing now that every individual who has passed on from this life was a daughter or son of God dancing through their existence once feeling as young and invincible as I used to believe I was.

It’s a beautiful pain.  Like stretching out a muscle.  Even though your body recognizes it as pain, your mind turns it into a good ache knowing it’s doing something positive and benefiting.

The reason why the joy outweighs the sorrow of this occasion is because she is reunited again with grandpa.  What peace.  I think of my love, Mitchell, and what it would be like to be torn apart for an entire decade.  After enduring this trial of loneliness for so long, she can forever let go of that heavy burden.  She can leap into grandpa’s wonderful, loving arms with the soothing assurance that they will never part again.

All day, I couldn’t stop singing to myself the song my parents wrote for grandma and grandpa’s 50^th wedding anniversary…

Years ago you set a course

To the stars

Sailed towards eternity

Two together

You put out to sea

You began a journey

To your legacy

Gliding free

Love fills your sails

And builds eternally

Your love breathes endlessly

Years navigating

You sailed through life

Gathering pearls

Seeing the world

You journeyed on

Gliding free

Love fills your sails

Builds eternally and still

Love breaths endlessly

Love you so much grandma!!  Thank you for making this world a more beautiful place.

How Can I Make My Prayers More Meaningful?

Get this week's lesson here.

I am SoOoOoOo excited for the lesson this week.
To introduce the topic I want to ask all of the young women to stand up and recite the YW theme again.  Have you ever noticed how everyone sounds like monotone zombies when they give the theme?  I'll ask them to truly think about the words as they're saying it so they are able to deeply ponder it.

Sometimes our prayers can go through that same repetition.  I'm guilty of falling into a rut and hurrying through my prayers without being in the right mind frame at times.  

Heavenly Father loves us and wants us to communicate with Him through prayer. When we pray, we should tell Heavenly Father what we feel in our hearts. We should not repeat meaningless words or phrases. Through sincere, heartfelt prayer, we can feel the nearness of our Heavenly Father.  

“As you feel the need to confide in the Lord or to improve the quality of your visits with him—to pray, if you please—may I suggest a process to follow: go where you can be alone, go where you can think, go where you can kneel, go where you can speak out loud to him. The bedroom, the bathroom, or the closet will do. Now, picture him in your mind’s eye. Think to whom you are speaking, control your thoughts—don’t let them wander, address him as your Father and your friend. Now tell him things you really feel to tell him—not trite phrases that have little meaning, but have a sincere, heartfelt conversation with him. Confide in him, ask him for forgiveness, plead with him, enjoy him, thank him, express your love to him, and then listen for his answers. … Answers from the Lord come quietly—ever so quietly. In fact, few hear his answers audibly with their ears. We must be listening so carefully or we will never recognize them. Most answers from the Lord are felt in our heart as a warm comfortable expression, or they may come as thoughts to our mind. They come to those who are prepared and who are patient”

-Bishop H. Burke Peterson

I was browsing Pinterest for some prayer quote ideas I could use as handouts and as I was searching I thought to myself, "There are so many great pins!  I wish everyone could just make their own Pinterest board for my lesson this Sunday."  LIGHTBULB!  BRILLIANT JESS!
They can...

For part of my lesson I'm going to bring glue sticks and print out all the prayer quotes I can find.  Each of the girls can have their own "Prayer Board" and "Pin" the quotes that are most meaningful to them.  We can each go around and share the ones that stand out the most to each individual and explain why it's significant to them.

Seriously, if you search for "LDS prayer quotes" you will be pinning for hours without even realizing it.  I found SO MANY.

 

As a class, sing or read hymns about prayer (use the topical index at the end of the hymnbook to find an appropriate hymn). What do the young women learn about prayer from these hymns?

I love this suggestion.  If we ended up spending the entire time singing, I wouldn't mind a bit!

 For my soul ^adelighteth in the ^bsong of the ^cheart; yea, the^dsong of the righteous is a prayer unto me, and it shall be answered with a blessing upon their heads.

-D&C 25:12