Ministering Sisters

            About eighteen years ago my Relief Society president, Sue Smith, came to me with a proposal. She expressed concern that the younger mothers didn’t have the advantage, as we did, of mother education lessons that were once part of the Relief Society curriculum. She asked if I would write a mother education lesson each month that would be printed on the back of the visiting teaching message to be left in the homes of the sisters. She gave me a list of topics, and I enthusiastically agreed to write the lessons if I could remain anonymous. I felt the teachings would be more effective if no one knew who authored them. The plan worked, and the ward sisters were receptive. But as the lessons emerged, I realized that most of the lessons were not specifically for mothers, because all women inspire children, and the lessons were basically the gospel in action—which, of course, applies to everyone. (With the church-wide restructuring of visiting teaching, m...

              Like many of you, I have been thinking about  ministering . My Relief Society president assigned me a companion and a few sisters to watch over. I am to  minister  to them according to their needs as guided by the spirit—however, whenever, and wherever. As I tried to put this new assignment into practical application, I thought about the geography that is involved. (If you are thinking, “geography? really?,” stay with me.) All ward leaders from Primary president to bishop are limited in their service by ward boundaries. Stake leaders are the same. The stake president has no jurisdiction outside the borders of his stake. Missionaries receive a call to serve in a specific mission and, as assigned by the mission president, have authority to preach and teach in whatever area within the mission he directs. General church leaders have assigned limits. Members of the quorums of the Seventy receive changing local...

            All women, ages eighteen to one hundred and eight, in the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints have automatic membership in Relief Society. This membership brings many perks, perhaps the greatest of which is to have millions of sisters.             Your sisters in the gospel can help you, teach you, and inspire you. They can cry and laugh with you. They can understand you because you share common values and aspirations. Some gospel sisters are as close and their friendship as precious as if you were born of the same mother.             George Eliot described such a friendship: “Oh, the comfort, the inexpressible comfort of feeling safe with a person; having neither to weigh thoughts nor measure words, but to pour them all out, just as they are, chaff and grain together, knowing that a faithful hand will take and sift them, keep what is worth keeping, and then, with a breath of ki...