Sunday December 16

It was a pretty great day today.

I slept a little bit longer after Dad left for work.

I didn't get great sleep because I was a bit worried about how my lesson would go today.

When I woke up, Porter had gotten up.

Last night, Madi had a work party where she got a cute mug.

Well, as she was leaving the party, the bag ripped and her mug fell and broke.

Well, Porter saw that this morning and he did his best to get it all taped up.

Isn't that just the cutest thing ever?????

It was so sweet of him!

Anyway, we slowly got everyone ready while I tried to tie up the loose ends on my lesson.

It still didn't feel quite right, but I didn't have time to figure out what it needed!

Anyway....the kids and I chatted.

I talked to Madi and told her that Dad wished the kid she went on a date with last night would have come talked to him.

He was out checking/adding oil to her car.

Anyway, she said "But he is so intimidating to people!"

I told her that is what I said :)

But then we all started talking about what a big huge softy he is.

With animals and little kiddos...…..then we talked about how awesome he's gonna be as a grandpa :)

Someday...…….

It was a fun conversation with the kids :)

Then Cassi, Porter and Elsie went to choir practice.

Dang it...I thought they would sing this week, but they sing next week, when we will be in Wyoming.

I told them that the choir will probably sing in Wyoming, and they can just join them :)

We went to church and there were some great speakers for sacrament....talking about light and leading others to Christ, which was just what my lesson was about.

I took some notes and added it to my lesson and it was pretty cool that it seemed to fill the missing piece I thought I had in my lesson.
Isn't that cool how things work like that?!?

I forgot part of my display at home, so I cut out for the first part of Sunday School to run home.

But when I got to class we were talking about Daniel when he was younger and not partaking of them extravagant food.

Again, kind of cool because that was a story I used in my lesson as well.

I am happy with how my lesson went.

Of course I would have loved a little more input form the kiddos...….but they did good.

I took a lot of my lesson from a talk given by Sister Eubank by the name of Turn on Your Light.

Now this wasn't a Christmas lesson, but the theme the presidency came up with for the lesson was being like the star of Bethlehem and leading others to Christ.

She had 5 points in her talk, which actually came form a talk written by President Kimball in 1979!

Anyway.....I read this talk and then it hit me.....5 points.....stars have 5 points!!!!

It was perfect!

So the lesson was bout these 5 points, 5 things we can do to let our light shine and lead others to Christ.

For each think I had it written on a strip of paper and put it up on the board in the shape of a star :)

I am a sucker for a good theme :)

The first point was to be righteous.

Now being righteous doesn't mean being perfect all the time and never making mistakes.

It is about repenting of our sins and mistakes and freely helping others.

Then we talked about examples in the scriptures.

Alma the Younger and his whole story.

Aminidab when Lehi and Nephi were in the prison and the walls came down.

They both were wicked, then they repented and did all they could to lead others towards Christ.

Then I talked about a story about Pres Uctdorf's mother in law.

She was a young single widow in a rough time.

She read the Book of Mormon in a couple days and was baptized.

The missionary's asked her to write her testimony down and they used that in their missionary work.

So here is a woman that changed her life by accepting the gospel and then led others to Christ with her testimony.

The second point was to be articulate.

Meaning to clearly express how you feel about something and why.

We talked about the think that we have become more articulate about lately....and that is the name of the church.

The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints.

Seems to me that this has become a very important thing we need to articulate.

Then I asked them these questions.

How do you feel about Jesus Christ?

Why do you stay in the church?

Why do you believe the Book or Mormon is Scripture?

Where do you get your peace?

Why does it matter that the Prophet has something to say in these days?

How do you know he is a real prophet?

I wanted the girls to thin about these things.

How can we be articulate about what we believe if we never sit down and figure out what we do believe?

The third point, be different.

I like to think of it as thinking outside the box.

Like Samuel the Lamenite, he couldn't get in through the door, so he climbed the wall.

By doing so, he led many to Christ.

And this is where I talked about Daniel and him not partaking of the food....he was blessed for it in physical strength as well as spiritual strength.

And this is what I got from the sacrament meeting speaker (Melissa Johnson) that I added.....

She used an acronym for STARS.

S- reading your scriptures

T- attending the Temple

A- Always Pray

R- Remember Him

S- Service

I loved this because if we remember to do these things, then we will be blessed with the spirit.

And the Spirit will be there to guide us and help us THINK OUTSIDE THE BOX!

Fourth point, be distinct.

That is more than being different.

That is being recognizably well -defined!

We read in Helaman 5:12 about building a foundation of rock.

We must build our foundation before it is needed.

It will do no good to wait for the storm and then build the foundation!

I talked about a story from Sister Eubanks talk.

Some kids were stuck out in the tide.

People on the beach tried to help and just got stuck there too.

So there were 9 people out there.

A woman named Jessica Simmons had the idea to have people on the beach link arms to form a line out to where people were stuck.

This is where she was DIFFERENT from what others though to do, but what made her DISTINCT was the fact that she was a very good swimmer.

She knew she could get those people out of the tide.

So she swam down the line and go the people one by one and handed them to the human line that passed them all to safety.

Now if Jessica had not practiced her skill of swimming, she would not have been able to do what she did.

I like to think of this as our spiritual gifts as well.

Spiritual gifts we are given can be used to build that rock as our foundation.

But we can't wait until the time we need it, we need to figure out our gifts and we need to use them so they are there when we need them.

These spiritual gifts will be a light for others, to help guide them to Christ.

I talked about Grandma Ene.

About her gift of compassion and empathy.

How she had an amazing ability to know what others needed.

There wasn't a person that knew her that didn't feel God's love when they were around her.

The last point, was to do all those, happily :)

Who doesn't love being around someone who is genuinely happy.

I'm not talking fake happy....but real happy.

But if we are keeping the laws of God and helping and uplifting others, we will automatically be happy!

And what better way to shine than by being happy!!!!

Anyway, that was the lesson.

Then for the gift that we gave as YW leaders, they got some hand stamped (by my helper, Brent) bracelets with little stars on them.

They are pretty cute.

Hopefully it will be a reminder for them to shine like the Star of Bethlehem  so they can lead others to Christ!!!!!'

Once we got home and got changed, the Morgna's came over.

We have been planning a Hallmark movie night.....a new tradition we are starting.

The Morgan's and Matthew's Merry Magical Movie night.....we may change it to a Marathon next year, but we only had time for one movie tonight.

Anyway, we had dinner together and sent Port and Cannon to go hang out while us girls watched the cheesy Christmas movie :)

Fun times!!!!