Promises to Covenant Israel

Oh how I loved studying the promises given to covenant Israel between October 2020 and April 2021.  It blessed my life immensely.  I suddenly saw these promises on nearly every page of scripture.  I also noticed them better in my life...and by that I mean that I noticed them happening more in my day to day life but also I was better able to look back at experiences in the past and see how many of these blessings have been fulfilled.  

I feel closer to the Lord now.  Studying these promises brought me strength and joy and peace and hope.  It reminded me, over and over, that God keeps His promises.  It reminded me that I'm NEVER alone.  That I can repent and be forgiven.  That I can be redeemed and enabled and strengthened and purified.  Our beloved prophet is so inspired and I'm SO grateful that I acted on his invitation to study these promises.  He was right; I was astounded!

I purchased a piece of art made by Eva Timothy with many of the promises on it.  It's hanging next to my rocking chair in my living room and I look at it nearly every day and think about one or more of the promises.

For 40  days, I shared a promise to covenant Israel on social media, one each day for the 40 days leading up to Easter.  That was a wonderful way to start each day, sharing one promise and thinking about how I have seen that blessing in my life.

Unity Friendship Fun

 The pandemic has made things challenging for unity within our ward.  People have different opinions and they have reacted in a wide range of ways to the pandemic, to church closures, to wearing masks, etc.  It's getting closer to normal--we go back to second hour church meetings in person in 2 1/2 weeks.  But I feel like the level of unity and friendship in our YW group has suffered.  So I have thought and prayed about what to do.  And I've tried to do a variety of things.  Communicate regularly.  Drop off little treats and quotes.  A couple of times I have written letters or sent postcards.  Keep inviting, inviting, inviting.  For months, I have been doing "Waffle Wednesday" where I make waffles for my girls after school on Wednesdays and they sometimes invite friends--and a couple of times I have invited all of the YW to Waffle Wednesday (though the result from that has been mixed.)  And now I am trying to take small groups of YW out to ice cream to get a chance for them to interact outside of church/church activities and hopefully strengthen friendships.  I've only been able to take one group so far...but it was SUCH a fun evening.  It was a bit chilly.  But after eating their ice cream, Sofie, Gabby, Claire and Brielle played on the playground and they laughed and talked and seemed to have a great time.  I really enjoyed watching them interact as well as interacting with them myself.  I want to do it again soon with some different YW.

One other thing that I think went well.  We had a cupcake decorating activity yesterday.  One of our YW is gluten free, and she hasn't been attending much recently.  So I reached out to her and her mom that morning and let them know that I had gluten free cupcakes for her for the activity that night.  I got a response from her mom almost immediately, thanking me for making sure to include her daughter.  And that young woman and her sister came to the activity!  And I think they had fun.    I may be mistaken, but I doubt they would have come if I hadn't reached out to let them know that I had made gluten free cupcakes for her.  

Ward Council Breakfast

 About 7 or 8 years ago I was serving as RS President in my ward.  Laurel King was the Primary President and I think Heather Bankhead was the YW President. A week or two before Father's Day, discussion turned to whether we should hold ward council that day. I don't remember the details, but we felt like we should hold ward council...there were things to discuss.  So we decided to hold ward council but the three of us female presidents decided we would bring breakfast.  We brought yogurt and muffins and I think juice.  It was a beautiful morning and while I am sure we could have cancelled ward council it was nice to have a small opportunity to serve the wonderful brethren that served on ward council.

LESSONS LEARNED:

Small acts can lead to happy memories later on and can be a means of expressing gratitude and love to others.