Time Out for Sisters...

Our Stake Relief Society Presidency has a 'Time Out for Sisters' every year. This year it was Saturday, September 10th. The theme was from John 6:35 "I am the bread of life: he that cometh to me shall never hunger." 

The first speaker was Nathan Wood, Director, University of Kentucky Couple/Family Therapy. He also is in our Ward at Church. The title of his talk was "All These Things Shall Give Thee Experience". He started by sharing Max Lucado's book "You Are Special". He had the pictures displayed on a big screen which we all could see. Then he read the story and changed the pictures accordingly. How happy I was that he shared this story. He called it the best self-help book out there. I own the book along with several that are just my favorite 'moral' books. They are beautifully illustrated and their stories each teach a valuable moral lesson. I highly recommend every Gramma having this book to read to her grandmonsters. 

In the book the people of the village spend their days putting stars on people who are good or pretty and putting dots on those who are not perceived as such. The end result is you are covered with stars and dots or mostly stars or mostly dots and that says a lot about what others think of you. Nathan likened these stars and dots to our thoughts and feelings. Then he said, "If we are not our thoughts and feelings, who are we? We are daughters and sons of Heavenly Father and he loves us." 

He gave us an exercise to move though these times with difficult thoughts or feelings. He told us all not to think about polar bears. Well, that became the elephant in the room. He listed a bunch of ways were were not to think about polar bears while we were all trying not to think about polar bears. Can't be done. Then he told us about this meditation exercise. See, our brains go non-stop all the time. (Side note: I once heard a person diagnosed with early stages of Alzheimer's say she knew something was wrong when she would have periods of time when her brain just wasn't thinking, at all.) The exercise was to breathe in for 4 seconds and then breathe out for 6 seconds. This means you have 6 complete breathes in a minute. While you are concentrating on this, you can't have the struggles in your brain that a non-stop brain just has. We tried it with our eyes closed and it really felt peaceful. I didn't think about that polar bear one time. When I got home and went to bed that night, I tried this technique to slow down my hyper-active mind and body. It worked again. Nice tip.

The next speaker was Sister Robin Cotton. She is the Louisville Temple Matron. Her topic was "What we are is God's gift to us. What we become is our gift to God". She shared three ways to become better than we are.
     1) Learn who we are.
     2) Accept and prepare because we will have hard things.
     3) Learn how to access the power of heaven by turning to the Lord and trusting in Him.

One of the sentences she said I liked the most was: "You are limitless within the limits." Think about that in today's "I am entitled" world. How much better would our world be if we recognized that not everything is okay, that they are and should be boundaries and that is okay. We have lots of room to play within limits. Love it!!

A special musical number "Come Unto Him" was enjoyed by all. Kathy Alexander accompanied on the piano, Juniper Parker played the flute and the vocalists were Natalie Anderson, Randi Lowe, Nicole Charles and Nikara Charles.

Kathy Hymas, our Stake Relief Society President, spoke next. Her topic was "Charity, the pure love of Christ". She reminded us that being charitable is not always convenient. However, when we give of ourselves, we are filled.

Concluding remarks were offered by Pres. Todd Hamblin, 2nd Counselor in the Stake Presidency. He talked about 'taking time out...' We need to take time out to feel the Spirit and connect with Heavenly Father. We need to take time out daily to meet with our make in prayer and scripture study. We need to take time out weekly to partake of the sacrament. We need to take time out frequently to attend the temple.

A lovely lunch of salads was provided. I opted to head to my car. I needed to finish up preparations for my next Institute class and we were leaving for Michigan the next day. That hour of study before my next meeting was invaluable. 

Excellent event. Well attended. Full of uplifting, cup-filling inspiration. Totally worth the time.