Celebrating the Joys of Womanhood

Last night's Stake Women's Social and General Women's Session Broadcast were wonderful!  Thank you to all who assisted in preparing the food tables!  And a extra HUGE thank you to the brethren who assisted us with setup, serving and cleanup - truly without their help we would not be able to accomplish such a nice evening.  Thank you also to all the wonderful Primary girls, young women and sisters who came to mingle with us and listen to the inspiring words of our leaders.  How blessed we are to be able to participate in such an uplifting session of Conference!

Confession - I didn't actually hear much of the meeting last night.  I was in the kitchen with the brethren and then went home early not feeling well.  But I took the time today to listen to the meeting via lds.org   As I listened to the words spoken by Sisters Bingham, Stephens and Oscarson and then President Uchtdorf, I heard messages that I personally needed to hear - promptings of things I need to improve in my life - hope for concerns I have - courage to try more diligently.   My heart and soul were touched.  My testimony and faith in the Gospel message were strengthened.

If you weren't able to listen or watch last night, I would encourage you to take advantage of the video and audio recordings available on lds.org.  It will also be available to read in a few days.

General Women's Session Oct 2016

Our theme for the Stake Women's Social was "Celebrating the Joys of Womanhood".  Each table reflected themes from the Primary, Young Women and Relief Society phases of our lives.











-Lorie Pierce

Did You Know? Provident Living Resources

What is Provident Living?

"Latter-day Saints believe in being prepared and self-reliant. We believe in preparing educationally for employment, in preparing financially for a rainy day, and in preparing temporally for natural disasters or other challenges. Most important, we believe in preparing spiritually for the Second Coming of Jesus Christ and for living with our Father in Heaven again. This approach to preparedness is called provident living. Living providently reflects our true eternal nature: we are “to act for [ourselves] and not to be acted upon” (2 Nephi 2:26). The Lord wants us to be responsible and independent (see D&C 78:14). He wants us to live providently because of who we become in the process: responsible, generous, mature, kind. For the more self-reliant we are, the better we can help our families and others. How can we feed the hungry if we ourselves are hungry? How can we impart knowledge if we ourselves lack knowledge? How can we build others’ faith if we ourselves lack faith?"  (Oct 2012 Ensign, "Provident Living Prepares Us For The Future")

The Church has an abundance of resources to help us in our efforts to live providently.  They cover topics such as Education, Finances, Food Storage, Physical and Mental Health and more.  We can each improve in some area and these resources can aid our efforts.  Spending a bit of time exploring their site Provident Living on lds.org would be a good thing to do.

As disciples of Christ, we covenanted at baptism "to bear one another’s burdens, that they may be light...to mourn with those that mourn; yea, and comfort those that stand in need of comfort, and to stand as witnesses of God at all times and in all things, and in all places that ye may be in".  (Mosiah 18:8-9)   Provident Living is a way of life that helps us to strengthen ourselves and prepares us to strengthen others.  As the old adage says: You can't draw from a dry well.  It is the same with our lives and our ability to share physically, emotionally, and spiritually with others in need.  But before we become overwhelmed with one more thing to do, we need to remember that the Lord expects us to do all things "in wisdom and order" (Mosiah 4:27).  We simply need to start somewhere and move forward.  As long as we are trying, the Lord will bless our willing hearts and efforts.  We will see the blessings in our own lives, in our families and in our ability to bless other's lives.

-Lorie Pierce

Come Gather With Us!

Twice a year, we as sisters in the Columbia Maryland Stake have a chance to gather together with the young women and Primary girls (8+years) for the General Women's Session of Conference.  This session of Conference is always held on the Saturday one week prior to the General Sessions.

It is a great opportunity to hear messages from our General Auxiliary leaders as well as a member of the First Presidency.  We also have the opportunity to socialize with our sisters prior to the broadcast.  This year, with all the recent changes in so many of our wards/branches, that opportunity to socialize will be especially wonderful. It is a chance to see friends from all across the stake.

Hopefully the publicity postcards have made their way into your wards/branches over the past two Sundays.  There were plenty distributed to allow for sisters to use them to invite less-active sisters or non-member friends to join with us that evening.  We would also encourage you to look at the young women or Primary girls (8+years) in your ward/branch - are there any who don't have a mother to accompany them?  Could you fill the void?

We are not serving a meal, but there will be lots of sweet and savory finger foods to enjoy.  Our set up this time will facilitate mingling.  We hope that sisters will take the opportunity to introduce themselves to those they don't know and begin new friendships as sisters of the Columbia Maryland Stake.

Should you have any questions please let us know at columbiastake.rs@gmail.com.

Does It Uplift?

Years ago as a young mother, I attended a family reunion.  My Uncle Jim, as the family patriarch, gathered us all together and took the opportunity to provide some counsel to us.  He spoke of the things we allow to influence our lives, the things we allow to enter our homes, the things we allow to demand our time & attention.  Then he gave us a benchmark question.  "Does it uplift?"  He told us that if we would measure those influences and our decisions regarding our lives, our homes, our time against that question we would find ourselves with more peace in our lives and more confident of our path back to our Father in Heaven.  We came home from that reunion and promptly put a sign above our TV that read "Does it Uplift?".  It was a simple reminder, but yet a powerful motivator to us and our children.

I was thinking about that sign the other day.  Years of moving and changing TV equipment - the sign was long ago lost - but the message stayed with us.  The more we seek to invite the Spirit into our lives, the stronger our filters of the junk in the world becomes.

Last week the sister missionaries came for dinner and afterward showed us a Mormon Messages video.  As I watched that video, I was again reminded of how precious our time is - of how many good choices there are - of all the relationships we can strengthen.  We are truly blessed with good, better and best options.  The Church is doing wonderful things in offering us those options.  If you aren't familiar with Mormon Channel, it is a great place to find uplifting media.

Here is one of my favorite Mormon Messages videos.  If you can't view it on your device - the direct link is below the embedded video frame.

https://www.mormonchannel.org/watch/series/mormon-messages/moments-that-matter-most-2

-Lorie Pierce