I have seen over and over a Relief Society Presidency all fired up and ready to serve after first being called only to fizzle out of steam after a year or so in the calling. I have to ask…how do you think those sisters, who served 25-50 years in their calling, did it?

This happens to everyone in all of our callings. Life really does get in the way. We just want to keep things simple; so simple that we forget why we’re serving and why it’s important to keep pushing ourselves.

So, I am going to offer several suggestions to get you back in the saddle, to get you excited once again, and to find enough inner sustenance to prevent this from happening to you in the future. First, let’s talk about the best example I know of a “rut-less wonder”.

Sarah Granger Kimball was the lady with the original sewing group in Nauvoo. After hearing about this group, Joseph Smith called the women together to organize them under the Priesthood. He informed them that throughout each dispensation, when the Priesthood was organized, the women have always been organized as well. The two work hand and hand in the Lord’s Kingdom. (If this is new news to you, read through my history posts; there’s lot’s more information there.) He also apologized for not organizing them sooner, but he was busy (hiding for his life, being unjustly jailed, building a temple, seeing that the Church was running smoothly…that sort of thing.)

Back to Sarah…Sarah was not called as the first RS president; Emma Smith was. But, from the beginning, Sarah was a valiant, outspoken voice in everything Relief Society did. Later, in the Salt Lake Valley, she was called to be president of her ward for a total of 50 years. During this time, she organized her sisters in such a way that they became the first Relief Society to do many things: buy and sell wheat, store it for various welfare needs, build their own meeting hall, sell products so women could support their families, organize suffrage meetings. The list goes on.

Sarah was a force to be reckoned with. If she ever got bored with her calling, you’d never know it, because she kept everyone busy accomplishing one thing after another.

While she was a ward president, she was a mother with a household to run, a school teacher (she had to support her family when her husband died), she was president of the local suffrage group, later becoming a vice president in the national society, which demanded she travel back east, and to Europe, to speak at national and international conventions. She also served as a secretary, then counselor, in the General Relief Society Presidency. All while serving continuously as a ward president.

If you ever feel like you’re in a rut, think about Sarah, who could have become bitter at not originally being called as the first president of the women of the Church. Instead, she used her energetic spirit well, pushing herself and her sisters all the way.

Here are some ideas that may spark some enthusiasm back into your own Relief Society:

1. Learn something new about the history of our Relief Society. Let this remind you of what we women are capable of, and go and do likewise.
2. See your sisters as the talented women they are. (Sometimes, we just see their problems.) Organize, initiate, and delegate a new program using some of these sisters.
3. Throw out the old goals and create new ones. Or, better yet, reread the old goals and do something to accomplish them.
4. Do one thing different from your usual planned activities. Planning a dinner and doing a service project aren’t the only things sisters can do. (My website is full of ideas that will involve, uplift, and bless your sisters. Just look under Relief Society Ideas.)
5. Read the Handbook. You will possibly find something you are not doing, or see something you have let slide under your watchcare.
6. You may have stopped visiting the sisters in your ward. Organize the visiting amongst your presidency. You’ll love your sisters all over again.
7. Challenge yourself and your sisters. Come up with a simple 1-2 hour goal that anyone can do. Announce it in Relief Society and involve all the sisters you can. Do a follow-up, congratulating the ones who fulfilled the goal. Celebrate together! Next week, or month, create a new challenge and go on from there.
8. Relief Society is only as strong as the sisters in the ward/stake/world are. With that idea in mind, strengthen your sisters, build them up, encourage their testimonies, teach them the wonderful truths of the gospel, help them fight for their husbands, families, countries, and the salvation of all of their loved ones.
9. The rut of a Stake leader can come faster than a ward leader because administration is boring. Visiting ward Relief Societies and individual sisters is the best way to get reenergized. There is just something about connecting with one another.
10. Stake leaders should be able to do some of the same things as ward leaders. Don’t be afraid of overburdening the sisters. Pay close attention to their needs and carefully evaluate each ward. Invite some wards–with similar needs, or maybe opposite needs–to work together.

Burdens are part of every life. Leaders often get overwhelmed with their burden. Be energized by using that burden to build and strengthen and wake sisters to their responsibilities. The success of accomplishment is the greatest boost in overcoming the ever-leering “rut” of your calling.