Sunday Thoughts - Called To Serve

I am the new Young Women's President.

Crazy, right?  I've never served in Young Women's.  I don't have daughters.  I don't have teenagers.  I have only been in the ward for four months and don't know the young women, or many other women in the ward, so even thinking about counselors was hard.  I didn't earn my Young Women's recognition award.  I struggle with the notion that homemaking is the highest, most noble profession to which a woman might aspire.  Teenagers scare me.

When the bishop extended this call to me two weeks ago, this resume of mine lodged in my brain and I had a hard time focusing.  All I felt was overwhelmed.  How am I supposed to know who to call as counselors?   Who am I, who slept in the guest room for three nights in a row because I don't know how to handle conflict with my spouse more effectively than giving him the silent treatment, to teach about the virtues of marriage (we have since patched things up and I'm feeling much more confident).   Where am I going to find the time and energy to do everything that needs to be done to magnify this calling when I already need down days if I have too much going on?

That was last week.

This week, I have felt a divinely given calm.  Names came.  Ideas came.  Priorities stood in a clear order.  As I've thought about the girls, I've realized that they are each unique and amazingly talented.  I'm looking forward to getting to know them better.  Mostly, I realized that while I may not be able to teach them how to make a cute skirt or handmade jewelry and I have absolutely zero vinyl lettering experience, those things, while lovely, are not essential.   What is essential is that these girls understand that they are daughters of God, important as individuals and as women, endowed with spiritual gifts that need to be developed and shared, beneficiaries of an infinite and eternal atonement that will allow them to return home to their Heavenly Father and entitled to receive continuing revelation, both personal and through restored priesthood keys.  And I can help them because I have a testimony of each of those things.

I have an excellent, excellent presidency that I'm excited to work with, a supportive husband and in-laws close by willing to help when Jay can't be around and even though I'm still nervous about all of my original doubts and worries, I trust that this is what I have been called to do at this time.   First up:  Priest/Laurel dinner on Wednesday night.  Wish me luck!