New Beginnings 2016!

For those that are not familiar with my calling at our local ward in the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints, I pretty much have the best calling in the world!  In each ward we are asked to volunteer our time and efforts to help everyone grow and gain a love and testimony of our Heavenly Father and Jesus Christ.  I was asked over 5 years ago to help encourage the Young Women (ages 12-18) to set their standards high and become more Christ-like during those trying years.  I was eventually called to become the Young Women's president, but in my opinion just getting to be around the girls is significantly important, no matter the calling.  I love working with the Young Women and seeing them be extraordinary girls with self-worth and compassion compared to the media telling girls to be conceited and selfish.  At the beginning of every year we meet with the Young Women and their parents to discuss upcoming events and reflect on the past year's events.  This is called "New Beginnings."  This year I had the idea to really focus on the scripture that was designated as the Youth theme in the church: “Wherefore, ye must press forward with a steadfastness in Christ, having a perfect brightness of hope, and a love of God and of all men. Wherefore, if ye shall press forward, feasting upon the word of Christ, and endure to the end, behold, thus saith the Father: Ye shall have eternal life” (2 Nephi 31:20).
I broke up the scripture and then each member of the YW presidency spoke about what it meant to them.  As we did this, we each turned on a lamp that had the piece of the scripture in it.
This was a simple craft that could be done with vinyl, but I was in a rush and printed out the words on clear plastic projector paper.  You know the kind that we grew up with in school where the teachers would write on them with a projector for math problems?  (Man, kids these days don't even know what we went through with those projectors.  Now they have smart boards that are AWESOME!  But that's a different topic that is not spiritual, like this evening was).

A picture of the lamps and the lines from the scripture shining through!  

I remember having to speak about "Steadfastness" and "Enduring to the End."  With steadfastness, I spoke about runners and how they are constantly trying to increase their speed and strength towards a goal, and how we should be like that towards Christ.  We should be constantly moving towards becoming like Him by doing those things that we need to do every day.  I liked talking about "Enduring to the End" and how some look at it as a positive thing and others as a negative thing.  But if we do what we are supposed to be doing, and have faith in all things, then the "enduring" is quite wonderful.  Then I shared one of my favorite quotes that I try to remember every day: "In all of living, have much joy and laughter.  Life is to ENJOYED, not just ENDURED" by President Hinkley.    
We finished the evening with delicious treats that my amazing hubby helps set up every year.  Thank goodness we have lots of opportunities to use the chocolate fountain.  I love getting to speak to the families in our ward, because being away from our family, our ward is our adopted family.