At the beginning of the month Allison Crain from Victoria Ward received her YW medallion in Sacrament meeting. Their night of YW in Excellence is to celebrate what all the YW have worked on throughout the year and the theme was “By small and simple things are GREAT THINGS BROUGHT to pass” found in Alma 37:6.
Olga Rauch, Young Women President, shared with them that as we learn from doing personal projects and activities under the YW values we can learn attributes to be more Christ like and become closer to our Father in Heaven. The YW sang the theme song for 2018 YM/YW “Peace in Christ”accompanied by Lindsey Jenson on the piano and Eliza Summerhays on the flute.
Each Young Woman shared a value and the project or experience they had worked on this year. Olga Rauch, Young Women President, said, “I loved getting to know them better as they shared their personal goal they worked on.”
Bishop Budge in his remarks explained that along with the theme and scripture little things we do each day make a big difference in our life. Like going to seminary, reading our scriptures, saying our prayers and attending our church meetings.
He explained this by giving them an example: What could you go and buy with a dollar? Not much. What if I give you a dollar each for a few years? What could you buy with that money then? He compared that to how small things we do each day can help us build a great testimony and help us accomplish great things!
There were “small and simple metaphors” to represent the values.
Faith was pearl. We talked about how pearls are formed inside of an oyster from some kind of small and simple foreign object making it's way inside the shell. The oyster, trying to protect itself forms a barrier around the object. Layer upon layer. Just like the pearl is formed layer by layer, our faith can grow little by little as we endure our trials and challenges.
Divine Nature was represented by the little Forget Me Not flower. Although we may feel small and insignificant we are never forgotten by our Heavenly Father.
Individual Worth is represented by the color red, and we used the metaphor of a heart/heartbeat. We talked about how our being is made up of little heartbeats. Just like each person has their own unique heart, each of us has a unique contribution to our families, friends, and ward.
Knowledge was represented with green and a bottle of pages from a book. We talked about how as a child we first learn our letters, followed by small words, then sentences, paragraphs, and then we start reading books. We can't read books before we learn those letters. In the gospel we also learn this way. We learn line upon line, precept upon precept, here a little and there a little.Alma in the scripture for our theme was passing on the plates to his son Helaman and little by little the plates were put together to have a great Book - the Book of Mormon- for us to have now.
Choice and Accountability was represented by Monarch Butterflies. These tiny creatures use their small antennae which helps them navigate from the United States to Mexico every year using the earth's magnetic field for orientation. If we listen to the still small voice we will also be able to navigate this life and safely arrive at our ultimate destination.
Good Works was a bumble bee. We talked about how the bees all serve each other, and work together in the hive. They huddle together to keep warm in the winter and all flap their wings to keep the hive cool in the summer. We talked about how a single bee can only make about 1/12th of a teaspoon of honey but when all of the bees combine their honey, they can make a substantial amount. We need to learn from the bees and serve one another.
For Integrity we choose to talk about purple crystals and gems. A gem is a polished and cut crystal. We all born have the potential to become gems if we exercise integrity to become honest and courageous individuals. President Hinckley said, "How rare a gem, how precious a jewel is the man or woman in whom there is neither guile nor deception nor falsehood!" Let us all become the polished individuals Heavenly Fathers wants us to be.
Virtue is represented by the color gold. We talked about chain mail. Elder M. Russell Ballard said, “I like to think of spiritual armor not as a solid piece of metal molded to fit the body but more like chain mail. Chain mail consists of dozens of tiny pieces of [metal] fastened together to allow the user greater flexibility without losing protection.... It has been my experience that there is not one great and grand thing we can do to arm ourselves spiritually. True spiritual power lies in numerous smaller acts woven together in a fabric of spiritual fortification that protects and shields from all evil.”
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