Monday, September 23, 2013

At First I Thought "Splat!" as in Failure

Several weeks ago I was asked to teach in Relief Society. I enjoy teaching and miss it greatly since being release from the RS presidency, so of course I said yes. I had many weeks to prepare and a great talk, Elder Holland's "Lord, I Believe", as the topic. I spent those weeks studying, cross-referencing, and praying about what words/message I should share based on this talk.

Yesterday was the day and going into RS I felt confident about what I was going to share. I felt that I had been guided by the Spirit in my preparation and was ready. And the lesson went smoothly with good participation by the sisters. Yet after RS I felt that somehow the lesson fell a little flat. I was quite discouraged. Splat!

I felt bad because the sister who had asked me to sub expressed her confidence in me & my teaching and I felt that I had let her down. I also felt like I had let the RS sisters down because I wasn't sure that I had left them feeling uplifted or edified. And really, what is the point of staying at church for 3 hours if you can't be strengthened and uplifted in all the classes?  Finally, I felt that perhaps I had not delivered the message God had intended for me to teach and therefore let him down.

But God shows us tender mercies daily if we keep our focus on Him. And this morning on my Facebook page there was a message from a sister who had attended RS yesterday. She said she had tried to catch me after church to tell me she related very well to the lesson, that the message was what she needed that day. And so my spirits were lifted and knew that even if she was the only sister who felt the spirit of the message, that was enough.

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