Change the World!

Young Women in Excellence (YWIE) is looming.  I'm not sure exactly how we are going to present it, but one thing is clear to me:  I want the theme to be "Change the World!"  I was inspired by Sis. Elaine Dalton's talk at the Young Women Inservice, and from a quote from a devotional talk she gave at BYU-Idaho:

     "Your lives of preparation, righteousness, courage and purity will change the world!"

The purpose of  YWIE, according to Handbook 2, is to recognize the young women for the good things they are doing, as well as celebrating Personal Progress.  We need to sit the Young Women down and see what they have done with Personal Progress in the last few months.  What I really do not want is a Young Women in Excellence where only a few YW are highlighted because they were the ones that have earned ribbons for their scriptures to show that they have completed a Value. Our YW are doing good things in their lives, and they need to be encouraged in and recognized for those things.

I want the girls to realize that they can change the world, from where they stand out to the wide world.  I want to do all I can to help the girls know that they are empowered as they go forward to change their circumstances, change the people around them for the better, and help others change the world.  They will have the faith and courage to dare to do great things as they embrace the Gospel.

I was thinking that perhaps, instead of a spiritual thought during Opening Exercises, we would challenge the girls each week to do something to do something great.  Maybe they will decide to go visit one of the less-active girls.  I really want to encourage that, because girls will want to come to activities and Sunday meetings if they feel like they have a friend there.  Perhaps they will take the time to speak to someone that looks like they need a kind word.  Or maybe they want to set a goal to do well in their classes, and they need to really push themselves to work hard to improve their grades.  Or whatever they feel they need to do to stretch, to grow, and to change their world for the better.

Readers, what do you think about this?  I think my idea is not fully-formed yet.  Personal Progress is perfect to incorporate into the challenge.  Perhaps our girls need to see Personal Progress in a new light in order to recommit to the program.

Before Photos

Here is a look at our not-so-lovely Young Women's room, pre-beautification.

You can see that we have lots and lots of blank space.  The piano is new to us, not the one that we were going to paint.  Our Values and Theme are very cute, but that's the only thing about this room that is (when it is uninhabited).

That Girl

When I was a Young Woman, I was that girl--the less-active one, the socially awkward one, the wallflower.  When leaders would invite me out to activities, I would say, "Sure, I'll be there", but usually back out at the last minute.  I didn't feel comfortable in my own skin, to begin with, let alone super-comfortable in social situations.  I also felt different from the other girls.  To me, they were all perfect little Mormon girls with perfect looks, perfect singing voices, perfect families, perfect testimonies and perfect futures. Of course, had I bothered to look further than my own nose and actually get to know my classmates, I would see that they had their own trials and ways that they felt "different".   None of us really had "perfect" lives, and all of us have had major challenges over the years.

I don't remember much about my Young Women's leaders, but I'm sure that I was one of the girls that they worried about and prayed for as much as I worry about and pray for my less- and inactive girls.  Sure, I was that girl, but now I'm completely active, I have a strong testimony, and I've "(made) and keep sacred covenants".  What are some of the things that helped me become who I am, and how can I use that to help my girls?

1)  There wasn't Family Home Evening, family prayer or the priesthood in our home, but my parents still taught me correct principles, loved me and stuck with me, even though I was a tremendous pill.  We had stability.

2)  My leaders didn't give up on me.  I can only remember a couple of times when my leaders came over to my home or gave me rides to activities (which wasn't strictly necessary as we only lived a few blocks from the church), but they must have kept at me, because I can remember in particular Personal Progress activities.  And I still have a white hankie and note from one of the YW presidents gave me to use in the future when I went to the temple.  Oh, and now that I think of it, my friend who was the Laurel class president and the YWP made me a lovely Sweet 16 cake.

3)  Three of my Laurel classmates--Lisa, Dixie and Cristy--made a special effort to pull me into their social circle when we were Juniors in high school.  They probably don't know how much that kindness meant to me, and how it made me feel included.

4)  I went to Seminary.  Luckily, I lived somewhere where we had release time during high school.  Having a part of each day for spiritual instruction is important.  The Seminary teachers I had were a little bit lame, but at least I was learning basic things about the scriptures and Church history with other LDS kids.

So, family, leaders, friends and Seminary helped me have a foundation at least to build on as I matured.  When it came down to brass tacks in my life, I knew where to go to have real peace and strength, and that was the Savior and His Atonement.  I wouldn't have been able to find that on my own as an adult.

What I hope for my girls is that they will have that same foundation, so when they go out into the big world, they will know that there is a place to find that peace and strength.  We have a great Seminary teacher, who really works with the kids to liken the scriptures to themselves and today's issues.  It's early-morning Seminary, and some of the girls don't make that sacrifice.  Some of my girls have good friendships with each other, but the ones who go to different schools have a hard time making that connection.  Some families are very solid, but some of my girls' families are struggling in many ways.

All I can do as a leader is not give up on the girls.  I know that each member of my board has a particular role to play in connecting with each of the girls.  The girls also have great connections with the women who were in the prior YW board.  It will be interesting to see how these connections play out in the future.

Reader, what are your strategies for reaching out to your Young Women?  Tell me some success stories.  Give me, and any other YW leader who might be reading this, some encouragement, or tell me your concerns and woes.  We will get through this together.

Tablecloths, Centerpieces, and Me

Two or so weeks ago (approximately two weeks into my stint as YWP), I was still feeling a little dazed and confused by my new responsibilities.  I had many good intentions and half-formed thoughts, but I didn't feel like I was accomplishing anything.  I felt like my board was looking at me expectantly, ready to act if only I would give them at least an outline of where we were going.  So I went back to lots of prayer and thought.  One evening I was really down.  What did I need to do to get things rolling?  What did my girls need?  I prayed for guidance, then got ready for bed.

I went to bed but could not fall asleep.  All I could think about was how we really needed to get the girls involved in decorating our room.  Crown molding as frames around the chalkboards!  Large bulletin boards decorated in Pinterest-perfect ways with photos of the girls and the temple!  New curtains!  Etc.!  Etc.!  Ideas were coming so insistently that I had to get out of bed and take notes.

Now, at this point, I have to confess that I can be very utilitarian when it comes to decor.  By no means do I feel that a Relief Society or Young Women's lesson is incomplete without a tablecloth and centerpiece at the front of the room. After all, what does teaching the Gospel have to do with what your surroundings look like?   The prior YWP was always trying to figure out ways to decorate around the brown cinder block walls in our room.  Several presidencies prior to that tried different methods, but cinder block is a tough medium in which to work.  We did end up with very attractive YW Theme and Values prints, created by a very talented Beehive advisor, and that seemed just fine to me.  

The Holy Ghost was really stuck on this dang decorating thing, and I was wondering why what something that seemed to me so frivolous and, frankly, "Molly Mormon-y" had to do with strengthening these girls' testimonies and helping develop them into strong, faithful, LDS women and future leaders.  The thought came to me that working together would help these girls draw closer to each other.  They would learn important planning and execution skills.  They would learn compromise and cooperation.  And on top of that, if they had a room where they felt comfortable and happy, they would be more receptive to the Spirit during the Sunday lessons.  Finally, when the Spirit was satisfied that I had gotten the picture, I was able to fall asleep.

My board was very supportive.  The girls are very supportive.  I have a Camp Director/Personal Progress tsarina who is very creative and was so excited to go forward with this project.   We had our first planning meeting on Wednesday.  Six girls came out, and they learned some basic design and planning principles.  We started our "look book", and we have some very interesting and exciting ideas about how to work with our space.  The "before" picture will be posted soon, and I will follow with updates.


Maybe making our YW room more of our "home" is just a little thing, but I have the feeling that great things are going to come to pass because of it.  I'll keep you posted.

Lead Me, Guide Me

I am a physician with a busy practice, a wife, a step-mother of three terrific young adults, a sometime-triathlete, an electric bass-player, and a newly-called ward Young Women's president.  This blog is a place for me to talk about ideas and issues related to leading an group of young ladies through what can be wonderful, treacherous and wonderfully-treacherous times.  My goal is to help them develop their testimonies and become strong, faithful, LDS women and leaders.

Fortunately, I spent the past year as a counselor in the YW presidency.  This gave me at least a passing understanding of the time and effort involved in the calling.  I knew that I needed to have a terrific board whose strengths fill in my weak points.

Lots of prayer, thought, fasting, thought, prayer and thought went into the selection of the YW board.  Everyone that came to my mind was called and accepted their callings willingly.  They definitely are what I and the girls need.  They are deep thinkers, intelligent, thoughtful, creative and loving.  I feel like we are on the same page when it comes to where we need to go with the girls.

One of my counselors asked what I needed her to do, after our first presidency meeting.  My answer was, "Pray.  Study your scriptures.  Read the Handbook.  Go online to lds.org, read and watch everything you can in the Young Women section."  That was the way that I wanted all of us to start.  Get the overall vision of Young Women's from the General YW Presidency, then figure out what our YW need.

Our ward demographics skew to the "newly-wed and nearly-dead", giving us a small group of youth.  I have known most of them since they were in Primary and I was the Primary president.  We have fifteen girls on our roster, of which approximately half attend church regularly or semi-regularly.  Our girls are also very active in sports, music and other extracurricular activities.  This makes planning activities a little tough.  One thing that I knew would be important was transitioning from having the leaders plan all of the activities and events to having the girls be the planners.  Not only do I feel like they will be more likely to come to activities and bring their friends if it is something that they want to do, it will teach them important leadership skills.  I'd like them to feel comfortable calling someone and asking them to be a guest instructor if they want to learn a new skill, or contacting an organization to ask about and schedule a service project, or working together to come to a mutually-acceptable decision on what activities to pursue, or cultivate a new talent through an activity.

This transition will take some time for the girls to get used to and good at, but I have faith in them.   I also have faith that I was called by inspiration, as was my board.  Great things are in store.  Stay tuned!