To preface: Every March, the Relief Society presidency is asked to speak in church because March is the anniversary of the Relief Society's organization. We chose to use Sister Beck's talk, "Fulfilling the Purposes of Relief Society" to base our talks on. We each took one of the purposes of Relief Society that she outlined as the topic for our talk. My 1st counselor spoke on Increasing in Faith and Personal Righteousness, my 2nd counselor spoke on Strengthening Families and Homes, and I spoke on Serving the Lord and His Children.
When we prepared our talks, we were each supposed to take about 7-10 minutes. I was pretty confident that at least one of my counselors would take at least 10 minutes. Nope. They both took almost exactly 7 minutes. lol They left me with 15 minutes!!! So, the following is the 8-10 minute talk I prepared. It's missing the adlibbing I had to do to fill in another 5-7 minutes, but you get the idea. ;)
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The Relief Society began in 1842, when a group of women saw needs of the people around them and wanted to help meet those needs. Around this time, there were many benevolent societies and movements and at first, the sisters patterned their society after those organizations, but when they presented their plans to Joseph Smith, he told them that while it was “the best he had ever seen”, it was not appropriate to the purposes of the Church as a whole. He asked them to gather on the following Thursday and he would provide something better. “I will organize the women,” he promised, “under the priesthood after the pattern of the priesthood.” As they met together on March 17, 1842, they knew that this institution would be different from all the other benevolent societies of their day. Eliza R. Snow declared, “that the popular Institutions of the day should not be our guide – that as daughters of Zion, we should set an example for all the world, rather than confine ourselves to the course which had been heretofore pursued.”
That night, the prophet Joseph Smith organized the Relief Society as an official organization in the church, to serve as a counterpart and companion to the men’s priesthood quorums. Joseph was quoted saying that the Church “was never perfectly organized until the women were thus organized.”
There were twenty women present that night, today there are more than 5.2 million sisters in over 170 countries, making it the largest women’s organization in the world.
In the early days of Relief Society, the weekly routine for the society’s charitable work consisted of sisters reporting those in need and accepting donations of money as well as items such as clothing, fabric, soap, candles, blankets, etc. They shared skills with each other and when they needed to hire someone for help, they looked to hire a person who was in need of income at the time. They went from door to door, doing what we now call Visiting Teaching, checking on one another and ensuring that needs were met. In October 1843, a Sister Peck observed, “This society had done a great good in relieving the distressed. We have not said ‘be ye warmed and cloathed’ without trying to do it.”
Matthew 25:34-40
34 Then shall the King say unto them on his right hand, Come, ye blessed of my Father, inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world:
35 For I was an hungred, and ye gave me meat: I was thirsty, and ye gave me drink: I was a stranger, and ye took me in:
36 Naked, and ye clothed me: I was sick, and ye visited me: I was in prison, and ye came unto me.
37 Then shall the righteous answer him, saying, Lord, when saw we thee an hungred, and fed thee? or thirsty, and gave thee drink?
38 When saw we thee a stranger, and took thee in? or naked, and clothed thee?
39 Or when saw we thee sick, or in prison, and came unto thee?
40 And the King shall answer and say unto them, Verily I say unto you, Inasmuch as ye have done it unto one of the least of these my brethren, ye have done it unto me.
It is hardly possible to serve the Lord without serving His children, and vice versa.
Mosiah 2:17
And behold, I tell you these things that ye may learn wisdom; that ye may learn that when ye are in the service of your fellow beings ye are only in the service of your God.
We can serve the Lord and His children in a variety of ways. I was thinking about some of the ways I have been served recently by some of the members of our ward. My children have been watched by several people, I was welcomed into my neighbor’s home when I became locked out of mine – even though it was after 9 on a school night, I have received notes of gratitude and support, I was invited to participate in an activity, my visiting teacher came to my home to visit with me and share a message, I received phone calls of support and encouragement when I faced a new challenge, I have heard people pray for me in my calling, a number of you care for and teach my children in Primary and Nursery, and every week I see your friendly smiles. These are not huge projects that took grand amounts of time or money, but they have impacted me and blessed my life.
Service doesn’t have to be big. Any of us can be a friend, share a smile, express gratitude, etc. The little things DO count.
About a week and a half ago, I learned that my youngest sister had been in the hospital. One of my first reactions was, “Why didn’t anyone tell me?” And then I realized that I am 600 miles away, what would I have been able to do if they had called me? But then I found out that one of my other sisters had rushed to be by my sister’s side and stayed with her until it was time for her to go home, she then drove her home, fixed her some soup, and continued to check on her over the next day or two until she was feeling back to her normal self. It was comforting to me that my sister had been there to do a job that I would have wanted to do if I had been there. And it got me to thinking, what would my sisters think or feel if it had been me in the hospital and all of them being 600 miles away, unable to do any of those things. I hope they would be comforted in knowing that even though they are not here, I have many sisters here who would help me. I know that my children would be cared for, meals would be brought in, I would be visited, etc. all the things that my sisters would do for me if they were here.
Families take care of one another. And we are a ward family. We take care of one another by doing our home and visiting teaching, serving in our callings, fellowshipping one another, and responding to various individual needs whenever possible. When we serve one another, we are serving the Lord. And as we serve the Lord and His children, we are fulfilling one of our purposes, not just of Relief Society, but of the Church. When we were baptized, we each took Christ’s name upon ourselves. What does that mean to you? To me, it means that I strive to live as He would live, do as He would do, love as He would love, and serve as He would serve. When we serve others, we find ourselves being blessed as well.
President Spencer W. Kimball taught, “The more we serve our fellowmen in appropriate ways, the more substance there is to our souls.”
President Lorenzo Snow expressed a similar thought: “When you find yourselves a little gloomy, look around you and find somebody that is in a worse plight than yourself; go to him and find out what the trouble is, then try to remove it with the wisdom which the Lord bestows upon you; and the first thing you know, your gloom is gone, you feel light, the Spirit of the Lord is upon you, and everything seems illuminated.”
Serving in this calling has given me opportunities to serve in ways that I haven’t experienced before and I’m so grateful for those opportunities. I’ve found that the more we serve and strive to do the Lord’s will, the more joy we feel and the more we have the spirit with us. I have gained a testimony of the Savior’s words found in Matt. 16: 25 For whosoever will save his life shall lose it: and whosoever will lose his life for my sake shall find it.
In preparing for this talk, I came across a talk by Elder Hans B. Ringger called, “What Shall We Do?” In his talk, he said, “The gospel of Jesus Christ is the only plan in which there are no calculated errors. After the Sermon on the Mount, the Lord warned His disciples of future adversities and the need for just works. He explained that they should not rely on their own strength when they served but on His name and His calling. We, too, are disciples and live in a world of many needs, be they spiritual, material, or emotional. Through gospel service our eternal needs can be satisfied, and we will be able to serve in the world. Our needs cannot be met through searching for the unenduring but only in discovering the eternal. When we look for answers on an eternal plane, we will secure our relationship to God and gain a better understanding of our fellow beings. We will thus be capable of serving; such is the purpose of life.”
I’m so grateful for the opportunities we have to serve. I know that as we learn to serve others selflessly, we become more like our Savior.
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So there you have it. Now I should be off the hook for another year. ;)
