Visiting Teaching Message with Printables - February 2011

We know this message is getting to you a bit late this month, then again, it's the first time we've done this, so it's not really that late.

Part of our plans for the future of MMB include giving you a Visiting Teaching Message each month along with a super awesome handout. We promise next month to do much better and get you the message, the handouts, and even some Family Home Evening ideas at the first of the month. We are also working on getting a plethora of Primary and YW handouts to download each month as well.

Thanks so much!
Elisa and Caroline

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When my husband started his first job after Law School, the partners at his firm were very worried about me moving into a new community—so far from home—and not having any friends. They wanted to make sure I knew people. They wanted to introduce me to the other partners wives and make sure I had a “group” to keep me busy.

A happy wife is a happy employee, right?

My husband assured them that I was indeed just fine, and that I had, in fact, just had a group of women over to our home for a luncheon.

They were baffled. How? How did she make friends so quickly?

He responded simply: “The Relief Society. “

They were really curious as to what it was that made me so “well adjusted” and able to assimilate myself into a community so flawlessly.

He stated again: “The Relief Society. It’s a women’s organization in our church. No matter where we live, my wife will always have a built in network of women who are willing to be friends with her and help her out simply because she is a member of The Relief Society”

And, it’s true. Relief Society is a network of women who support, uplift and sustain each other, in good times and bad. As sisters, we accomplish our work in Relief Society as we focus on it’s purposes:

To increase faith and personal righteousness
Strengthen families and homes,
Seek out and help those in need.

Sister Beck has said:

“Whether we are married or single, old or young, we have a duty to defend and practice the truths found in “The Family: A Proclamation to the World.”
“. . . The only way we can accomplish this is by seeking, receiving, and acting on personal revelation. The real power in this great worldwide sisterhood lies within each woman. Though we may see ourselves as weak and simple, we all share a noble heritage and can develop a faith that is equal to that of remarkable, faithful women who have gone before us. We have a vital role to play in helping build the kingdom of God and preparing for the Lord’s coming. In fact, the Lord cannot accomplish His work without the help of His daughters.”

- Julie B. Beck General Relief Society President, Ensign, Nov. 2008, 108–11

The part of the message that stuck me the most this month was this: “The only way we can accomplish this is by seeking, receiving, and acting on personal revelation.” It’s one thing to get an idea to call someone, or go visit someone. It’s an entirely different thing to actually ACT on that idea. The ACTING is when we confirm to the Lord that we can be trusted with his work.

How do we actually KNOW when someone needs us?

In my old ward in Illinois, this one woman would randomly show up at people’s homes “just in the nick of time” usually when these people really needed someone, or needed help. When she was asked about it in a Relief Society lesson how she always “knew” she responded “I ask the Lord every morning to tell me who needs me that day. Then I Listen and I Act.”

That response has had a profound impact on me from that time forward. I try to follow that woman’s example of how a true Relief Society Sister should live—asking the Lord who needs me and then being willing to Listen and then Act. I’m not perfect at it, but I am trying. I have had some wonderful experiences as I have tried to follow her example.

This month as part of the Visiting Teaching Message, we have been encouraged to study a teaching of the restored gospel in order to strengthen our testimony. May we suggest to you that for this month we focus on seeking, receiving, and acting on personal revelation? The Lord cannot do it without us. He needs us—we are his hands. He needs us to ask Him who needs us, and then He needs us to ACT upon it so we truly can be the great support system and network of Righteous Women that we are intended to be.

To read this entire message please visit lds.org For more information on the visiting teaching program please visit The Relief Society Page on Lds.Org

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