We must cherish one another, watch over one another, comfort one another and gain instruction that we all may sit down in heaven together.
Lucy Mack Smith
Lovely to see these photos of the Maldon RS at their Christmas activity this year - what beautiful lighting.
If you have any photos of the activities in your ward RS, we would love to share them with the sisters around the stake - please email them to saramccullum1@gmail.com
Today's RS lessons were given from talks within the October 2014 General Conference as chosen by the Bishops / Branch Presidents.
In Tendring today their lesson was based on 'The Sacrament and the Atonement' by Elder James J. Hamula which can be read / viewed HERE
We began with a discussion on the Last Supper, a time when Jesus Christ was on the earth with His disciples:
"Jesus instituted a new ordinance for God's covenant people. No longer would animal blood be spilled or animal flesh be consumed in anticipation of a redeeming sacrifice of a Christ who was yet to come. Instead, emblems of the broken flesh and spilled blood of Christ who had already come would be taken and eaten in remembrance of His redeeming sacrifice.
"Participation in this new ordinance would signify to all a solemn acceptance of Jesus was the promised Christ an wholehearted willingness to follow Him and keep Him commandments. To those who would so signify and conduct their life, spiritual death would 'pass over' them and eternal life would be assured."
Sisters, as we partake of the Sacrament each Sabbath Day, do we recognise the importance of what we are doing?
As we take the sacrament we promise the Lord these three things:
1. First, we witness our willingness to remember. Then we witness we do remember, in so doing we are making solemn commitments to exercise faith in Jesus Christ.
2. We further declare that we will keep His commandments. That is a solemn commitment to repent. If our thoughts, words or actions have been less than what they should have been in days past, we recommit ourselves to more closely align our lives with His in days to come.
3. Next, we declare that we are willing to take upon us the name of the Son. That is a solemn commitment to submit ourselves to His authority and to do His work which includes receiving for ourselves every saving ordinance and covenant.
"The ordinance of the sacrament has been called 'one of the most holy and sacred ordinances in the Church.'
"It needs to become more holy and sacred to each of us."
This becomes the challenge for each of us, to ensure it is a holy and sacred moment each week. So how does that happen?
We discussed two specific things that could make a huge difference - maybe these will work for you also?
* What would happen if we began our preparation for the Sacrament before Sunday? Imagine if each day of the week we ensured we were repenting and preparing for the renewal of our covenants. What difference would it make to you? Your family? Your ward?
* What would happen if when we entered the Chapel area on a Sunday morning, we kept the room sacred and quiet, as we do the chapel in the Temple? What if we could keep our excited chatter and catch-ups for outside the chapel doors? What difference would it make to you to have those moments of peace and commune for the Lord prior to renewing your covenants? To your family? To your ward?
"May we receive the sacrament next week, and each week thereafter, with deeper desire and more earnest purpose."
Today our RS lesson was based on Chapter 4 of The Teachings of Ezra Taft Benson - Living Joyfully in Troubled Times.
President Benson shared his thoughts of when he was in Germany just after the end of World War II:
"The worst destruction I have witnessed was seen today....As I rode through the streets of Berlin and walked through some impassable by auto, I...saw half-starved women paying exorbitant prices anxiously for potato peelings...I saw old men and women with small hatchets eagerly digging at tree stumps and roots in an effort to get scraps of fuel and then pulling those home for miles on anything that would roll - from two wheels of a once baby carriage to small wagons - as beasts of burden.
"Later I faced in a cold half-wrecked third floor auditorium off a bombed street 480 cold half-starved but faithful Latter-day Saints in a conference meeting. It was an inspiration to see the light of faith...There was no bitterness or anger but a sweet reciprocation and expression of faith in the gospel.
" Not a single member registered any complaint about their circumstances in spite of the fact that some were in the last stages of starvation right before our very eyes. Our Saints...are full of hope, courage and faith and everywhere they look cheerfully forward with expressions of deepest faith for the gospel and for their membership in the Church."
Sisters - what an amazing and touching example of how we can truly live our lives and find happiness, even when the circumstances around us are heart-breaking. President Benson gave so much wonderful counsel on how we too can live this way. If you have not read the entire lesson, this is one we would strongly encourage you to...The lesson can be found HERE
A few quotes are shared below of the counsel received....is there something here that you could do that could enable you to feel peace and happiness?
"If we will have faith, our setbacks will be but a moment and success will come out of seeming failures. Our Heavenly Father can accomplish miracles through each of us, if we will but place our confidence and trust in Him."
"Faith gives us vision of what may happen, hope for the future and optimism in our present tasks."
"We have no cause to really worry. Live the gospel, keep the commandments. Attend to your prayers night and morning in your home. Maintain the standards of the Church. Try and live calmly and cheerfully....Happiness must be earned from day to day. But it is worth the effort!"
"Pressing on in noble endeavours, even while surrounded by a cloud of depression, will eventually bring you out on top into the sunshine...While you are going through your trial, you can recall your past victories and count the blessings that you do have with a sure hope of greater ones to follow if you are faithful. And you will have a certain knowledge that in due time God will wipe away all tears."
"Be cheerful in all that you do. Live joyfully. Live happily. Live enthusiastically, knowing that God does not dwell in gloom and melancholy, but in light and love."
"There are times when you simply have to righteously hang on and outlast the devil until his depressive spirit leaves you."
"We must lose ourselves in doing His will, We must place Him first in our lives."
Sisters, when we choose to live the Lord's way and follow the counsel from the Lord's servants, we can experience peace and happiness. We will find the strength to smile. We will find the will to get up and choose happiness the next day and the next.
Of course this counsel is to those of us who have circumstances in life which may be tough, he is not addressing those of us who may be experiencing clinically diagnosed depression. If this is the circumstances we find ourselves in at any given time, Elder Holland gave the most wonderful counsel we can follow and some wonderful words of wisdom, his talk can be found HERE
To end our lesson today we watched this wonderful Mormon Message based on the words of another of the Lord's servants - Elder Joseph B Wirthlin in his address Come What May and Love It:
Today's RS lesson was Chapter Three of the Ezra Taft Benson manual - Freedom of Choice, An Eternal Principle.
President Benson taught on the subject of agency often but was clear to remind us that it was not just a choice between right and wrong but was "an ability to make important decisions that will have bearing on our salvation and that will affect our happiness in eternity."
What freedoms are you grateful to have in your life? Maybe this video will remind you of the wonders the gift is of agency and the freedoms given to us from God.
This wonderful gift was so vital to us that a war was fought in Heaven to ensure it would be ours. President Benson reminded us "The war that began in heaven over this issue is not yet over. The conflict continues on the battlefield of mortality." The Lord so wants us to choose righteously, but "He will NEVER force us to live the gospel. He will use persuasion through His servants, He will call us and He will direct us and He will persuade us and encourage us but He will never force the human mind."
Sisters - the choice whether to live the gospel and choose to follow the Lord is ours alone. And here in mortality is the time we must make that choice, a time to "learn our duties and to do them."
But President Benson warned us to never forget, "Satan is also mindful of you. He is committed to your destruction. He does not discipline you with commandments, but offers instead a freedom to do your own thing!
"Satan's program is play now and play later. He seeks for all to be miserable like unto himself.
The Lord's program is happiness now and joy forever through gospel living."
If only we could remember that daily as we make our choices.
Whilst making the correct choices is vital, President Benson goes on to teach us that we have responsibility of those choices "We put our own lives in the direction of success of failure. We may not only choose our ultimate goals but we may also determine and decide for ourselves in many cases, the means by which we will arrive at those goals and by our industry or lack of it determine the speed by which they are reached. This takes individual effort and will not be without opposition or conflict."
"Our decisions have made us what we are.
Our eternal destiny will be determined by the decisions we yet will make."
The Lord needs sisters who can stand on their own feet and make correct decisions without being "compelled in all things" (D&C 58:26-29). President Benson taught "Usually the Lord gives us the overall objectives to be accomplished and some guidelines to follow, but he expects us to work out most of the details and methods. The methods and procedures are usually developed through study and prayer and by living so that we can obtain and follow the promptings of the spirit."
May we all take the time to review our lives. Are we studying the scriptures and praying daily? Sincerely? And listening to the spirit as we make these decisions that will as President Monson says "determine our destiny"?
"We should be anxiously engaged in good causes and leave the world a better place for having lived in it."
Please refer to the Self Reliance tab at the top for the remainder of this principle, which we would encourage you to consider further and use through the coming week.
A short presidency meeting was then given in each unit - this was the message shared in one of our wards today:
We are all incredibly busy people with much to do and many things to take care of. The RS President shared her feelings that one of the assignments we have that sometimes doesn't get given the priority it should is that of being a Visiting Teacher.
We discussed why it is such a vital role for each of us, why VT is so important. Ideas shared included that we were the hands and ears of the Lord, enabling each sister and her family to be cared for, that we needed to assist the Bishop and the Ward RS President in ministering to each sister and that it is a responsibility and covenant we made with the Lord at the time of baptism to love and care for one another.
The book 'Daughters of My Kingdom' shared the example of the early VT who were assigned to take care of the physical / welfare needs of their sisters, which in time has obviously grown to include the spiritual welfare of our sisters. Sister Eliza R. Snow who served as the second General RS President gave a wonderful description of just what we can do:
"Plead before God and the Holy Ghost to get the spirit so that you will be able to meet the spirit that prevails in that house...and you may feel to talk words of peace and comfort and if you find a sister feeling cold, take her to your heart as you would a child to your bosom and warm her up."
Further to that our Stake RS President Michaela shared a thought provoking quote from President Thomas S Monson:
"After our family, the most important people in our lives should be those we home and visit teach."
This week as you study Self Reliance Principle Two: Use Time Wisely also take some time to ponder the current state of your assignment as a Visiting Teacher. Have we given it the priority it needs? Are we keeping that covenant we made with the Lord? And truly - are these sisters important to us? Do we love them the way the Lord needs us to love them?
Maybe this month is the time to ensure we can say yes, we love the Lord enough to love our sisters.
