Monday, March 16, 2015

For Who Can Find a Virtuous Woman? For Her Price is Far Above Rubies


Yesterday was a gorgeous, sunny, spring day here in the Southeast! We were all so excited, especially since we've been having odd weather here lately--one day it's 80 degrees and the next it's literally back to 45 or 50. So we're happy whenever there's a halfway nice day out. 
Well, yesterday it was 80 or so degrees and we were all settling into our seats for our Beehive lesson when someone said, "Why don't we go sit outside and have class on the steps?" It was a novel idea and everyone happily agreed. So we headed out into the sun and started our lesson. 
Once every month or two, my Beehive teachers will look for a Personal Progress experience that correlates directly with their topic and use it as their lesson. Yesterday was one of those days. Our lesson was on repentance and was taken entirely from Virtue Experience #4:
Because the Savior loves you and has given His life for you, you can repent. Repentance is an act of faith in Jesus Christ. Read Moroni 10:32–33, the book of Enos, and the section on repentance in For the Strength of Youth. The Savior’s atoning sacrifice has made it possible for you to be forgiven of your sins. Read the sacrament prayers in Doctrine and Covenants 20:77, 79. Determine to partake worthily of the sacrament each week and fill your life with virtuous activities that will bring spiritual power. As you do this, you will grow stronger in your ability to resist temptation, keep the commandments, and become more like Jesus Christ. Determine what you can do daily to remain pure and worthy, and write your plan in your journal.
We read the scriptures in Moroni and Enos together and discussed what they meant to us. Then we read the Repentance section in the For the Strength of Youth to ourselves. In my pamphlet, I underlined some things that stood out to me:
Repentance is more than simply acknowledging wrongdoings. It is a change of mind and heart. It includes turning away from sin and turning to God for forgiveness. It is motivated by love for God and the sincere desire to obey His commandments. This kind of came as a slap in the face, to be honest. Up to that point, I hadn't really thought about this. I had only been acknowledging my wrongdoings and apologizing...but then the same thing would often repeat itself later and I would again apologize. This is NOT a true change of heart! I wasn't truly changed if I was still doing the same thing over and over. This is something I am going to work on in my life.
Then it continues: If you have sinned, the sooner you repent, the sooner you begin to make your way back and find the peace and joy that come with forgiveness. If you delay repentance, you may lose blessings, opportunities, and spiritual guidance. Again, I am guilty. Sometimes I feel like, 'Oh, I can repent of this when I say my prayers tonight. It'll be fine. I mean, it's not like I'm gonna die or anything between here and then.' Do you see the problem? Rationalization and delaying are not part of the repentance process! Who knows? Maybe I will die before the day is over!
When we finished reading, we had a nice discussion about what we learned, and others pointed out what I had noticed. 
We were going to read the sacrament prayers, but somebody suggested that we try and recite them from memory. We didn't think we'd make it all the way through, but guess what? We did it! It was kind of cool to note the differences between them that you wouldn't normally notice if you were just listening to the priests as they blessed the bread and water. I won't tell them to you here, but you can read them yourself and let me know in the comments what you notice. 
Finally, we wrote in our journals our plans to remain pure and worthy. Mine was heavily based on the eye-openers I received as I read about repentance. This was the first experience I've done in Virtue, but it was a good introduction and a perfect lesson on repenting!

See you later! (Or in the comments☺)

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2 comments:

  1. Annalee, thanks so much for your example. You are a spiritual giant.
    ~Lily

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  2. Looks like I need to change my process of repentance. I still struggle with many of the things you pointed out. Thanks for bringing it to my attention so I can work on that!

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