A Golden Moment

I am not quite sure what it has been, but this year I have been particularly impressed to pray more frequently for the ability to feel and recognize the Spirit. I realized as I was reading my scriptures that when Christ was preparing to leave His apostles, he was teaching them about the Second Comforter (the Holy Ghost) and how it would be sent to them to lead and guide them. Then when He visited the America's after His resurrection, one of His deepest desires was for the people to have the Holy Ghost to lead them in all truth.

I have felt within myself a greater desire to know Christ and to be Christ's. I guess this is what has motivated me to seek out the Spirit more often; because it is what He really wants for me.

I have come to notice a difference in my ability to receive and act on Spiritual promptings. I have come to more clearly recognize when God is asking me to do something, and I am trying to become better at quickly responding. I have been lead to share more openly personal conversion moments, and have been able to effectively help others with their needs.

I tell my family that I probably pray too much about the fine details in life; but I really feel like God has the better way of executing things than I do, and I can use all the help He will give me!

We are new to a ward (aka congregation) of primarily young-middle age families. We have felt a little lost because rather than having a small, very diverse ward, we have a very large, non-diverse ward; it is totally opposite of what we are used to! I (like I've said before) admit that I need to feel a sense of belonging through friends and having a way to serve. As I have prayed for help in this area (as small as it is), I have been blessed with the needed patience and simple acts of friendship that have acted as golden stars for my rainy days.

Recently I was called to served on the Relief Society Activities Committee. For our November activity, we put together Thanksgiving dinners for members in our ward who are struggling financially. Another portion of the night was spent getting to know each other better. I was in charge of the get to know you activity, and I spent a lot of time oozing over the Internet trying to find the perfect activity for our ward. I came across a lady's blog, and she mentioned how she and the other committee members of her ward prayed weekly to know the needs of their sisters, and if what they were doing was on target.

After reading her blog, I stopped what I was doing and said a simple prayer expressing my desire to find the right activity that would bring us sisters together, and would be just what we needed. I then kept looking for ideas and moved on with my day.

A few days later, as I was doing my gospel study I started to think about the activity and what we should do. In a clear, peaceful moment, the ideas came to me, and I combined a few researched activities into what I dubbed "Date That Sister".

This past Thursday we had our activity. I set everything up and was totally nervous about the game and how it would go over! (I shouldn't have worn a gray shirt... My nerves were very well displayed!) Each of the sisters had a jar full of questions in front of them. They had two minutes to introduce themselves in a clever way (like, my name is Messy Jessi, when I was really little I was super messy!) Then they started drawing questions from the jar and went back and forth asking each other the different questions until it was time for one side of the table to slide down and meet their new "date".

I was shocked by how well it went. The room was a loud buzz! I ended up having to used a trash can and a stick to get everyone's attention for when the time was up. (We women can't use our 6" voices when we're excited ;)). It filled my heart with gratitude seeing how much fun the ladies were having. A lot of women commented on how much they liked it, and one requested we just do that for a whole activity.

I know it is simple, but I felt the confirmation that I had listened to God's inspiration for what our sisters needed that night. I felt like He gave me a little golden moment to tuck away in my pocket as a memory of the good that happens when I listen to Him.

I am nothing extraordinary or special. I am far from perfect and "saintly", but I am realizing the huge difference in my happiness when I seek out the inspiration of God through the Holy Ghost. I know we matter enough to God for Him to direct our paths. I know He cares enough to answer a simple, heart felt prayer for direction and unity. The Lord really is merciful to the penitent seeker of truth.

I am thankful for my pocket full of golden moments.