I already wrote once about Pres. Uchtdorf\u2019s talk given in the General Women\u2019s Meeting, but I feel to address it a second time.\u00a0 He talked about achieving happiness and he used two ways to get there:\u00a0 Creating and being Compassionate.\u00a0 I would like to dissect the \u201cCreating\u201d part of his talk.
\nFirst of all he says \u201ceveryone can create.\u00a0 We develop ourselves and others when we take unorganized matter into our hands and mold it into something of beauty.\u201d\u00a0 He told us that we \u201care spirit daughters of the most creative Being in the universe.\u00a0 We were created with the express purpose and potential of experiencing a fullness of joy.\u00a0 Our birthright\u2014and the purpose of our great voyage on this earth\u2014is to seek and experience eternal happiness.\u00a0 One of the ways we find this is by creating things.\u201d
\nHow do we incorporate this into our lives and the Relief Society?
\nIn the Woman\u2019s Exponent I came across this little article:
\nThe most perfect home I ever saw was in a little house into the sweet incense of whose fires went no costly things.\u00a0 A thousand dollars served for a year\u2019s living of father, mother and three children.\u00a0 But the mother was the creator of the home; her relation with her children was the most beautiful I have ever seen; even a dull and commonplace man was lifted up and enabled to do good work for souls by the atmosphere which this woman created; every inmate of her house involuntarily looked into her face for the key-note of the day; and it always rang clear.\u00a0 From the rose-bud or cloverleaf; which, in spite of her hard house-work, she always found time to put by our plates at breakfast, down to the very story she had on hand to be read in the evening, there was no intermission of her influence.\u00a0 She has always been and always will be my ideal of a mother, wife, home-maker.\u00a0 If to her quick brain, loving heart and exquisite face had been added the appliance of wealth and the enlargements of a wider culture, here would have been the ideal of home.\u00a0 As it was, it was the best I have ever see.\u2014Helen Hunt, May 15, 1874
\nWe, the women of our homes (whether there are men or children in the household or not), are the creators of our environment.\u00a0 Let\u2019s be honest, when a man lives alone, the place is either a pigsty, or a home without heart.\u00a0 Am I right?\u00a0 It is the woman that is capable of bringing that home to an emotional level radiating comfort and love.\u00a0 That is our innate ability to create; not to mention our innate responsibility to provide a cherished home for our loved ones.\u00a0 It is that innate ability that allows us to expand and develop and enrich the lives of those around us in the very best way.
\nAs women in the Relief Society, sometimes we like to do \u201cwhat is safe\u201d rather than \u201cwhat is right\u201d.\u00a0 For presidents, this tends to be a burden.\u00a0 You want all the sisters to be happy, so it is easier to provide the surefire techniques that have always been done in your ward.\u00a0 I knew a RS president who changed up all the visiting teaching (a rather ambitious, daring move).\u00a0 One of the older sisters threatened to go to the Bishop in order to get her visiting teaching sisters back.\u00a0 There was a huge uproar in the system.\u00a0 Same problems with RS overnighters, Super Saturdays, cookie exchanges, other such traditions that CAN NOT be touched.\u00a0
\nSometimes, we shoot ourselves, or our society, in the foot by limiting creativity.\u00a0 A failed attempt at creativity brings in bitterness and other such feelings of failure.\u00a0 An avoidance of trying something new, becomes stagnant.\u00a0 Tradition sets in and there is no other way to do things.\u00a0 As I recall, \u201cthe tradition of our [mothers]\u201d was a bad thing in the Book of Mormon.
\nPres. Uchtdorf has just counseled us to be creative.\u00a0 That is a gentle reminder to go to the Lord and find out what the real needs of our sisters are and come up with a program that will fulfill those needs.\u00a0 It\u2019s going to be quite different from what has always been done, but in the long run it will be a better, more fulfilling thing.\u00a0 Above all, it will have the blessing of the Lord behind it.\u00a0
\nHave you ever experienced this before?\u00a0 A situation comes up where there doesn\u2019t seem to be any easy solution, without hurting feelings, without causing an uproar, without overhauling an entire program.\u00a0 You just don\u2019t know what to do and you go to the Lord with it.\u00a0 While you are in the very act of praying about this \u201chuge\u201d problem, the answer comes softly and quietly.\u00a0 As you sit and think about this new idea, still on your knees, more ideas begin flooding through you.\u00a0 Suddenly the excitement is too much for you to bear.\u00a0 You interrupt your prayer, with a hurried Thank You, and write everything down before you forget.\u00a0 There, before your eyes is the act of creation presented to you by the Lord himself, for your particular need.\u00a0 Let it happen to you, no matter what your calling is, no matter what responsibilities you have to bear, no matter what.\u00a0 This gift is yours.\u00a0
\nWhen a sister has a new idea, support her in it.\u00a0 Too many times I have seen tradition win and the act of creation lose.\u00a0 One brainstorming idea can blossom into an array of beautiful ideas that will help individuals.\u00a0 And when we help one, we help many.
\n\u201cThe more you trust and rely upon the Spirit, the greater your capacity to create.\u201d\u00a0 Pres. Uchtdorf\u00a0 says.\u00a0\u00a0 Our destiny is to improve not only the world around us but the world within us.\u00a0 We can change our situations, our problems, our struggles, our hearts, by creatively seeking answers.
\nCan I just mention another little thought?\u00a0 Satan is not creative.\u00a0 Nor does he have the power to create.\u00a0 He copies, he counterfeits, he steals, he twists, he manipulates, he robs, he imitates.\u00a0 Man recognizes that Satan is tempting, and sometimes even exciting, and always easy, and gives Satan credit for what does not belong to him.
\nGive credit where credit is due.\u00a0 God is the father of creation; by being one of His creations, we are allowed access to this incredible gift.\u00a0 Let us expand, share, enjoy, uplift and build new wherever we are and in whatever we are doing.\u00a0 As long as we are in the mindset of helping others, God will bring us success. \u00a0
\n\u00a0<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
I already wrote once about Pres. Uchtdorf\u2019s talk given in the General Women\u2019s Meeting, but I feel to address it a second time.\u00a0 He talked about achieving happiness and he used two ways to get there:\u00a0 Creating and being Compassionate.\u00a0 I would like to dissect the \u201cCreating\u201d part of his talk. First of all he […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"nf_dc_page":"","_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[21],"tags":[38],"class_list":["post-155","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-conference-talks","tag-pres-dieter-uchtdorf"],"yoast_head":"\n