Sister Beck

About a month ago, we had a stake enrichment night in which we were priveledged to have the General Relief Society President sister Julie Beck come to speak to us. Our stake president emphasized at the beginning of the meeting that the church does not approve of members passing along notes from talks given by general authorities. I think the main reason is that they can be mis-quoted and mis-represented as their words are taken out of context or the person hears something different than what the speaker intended etc. I just wanted to mention that this entry is mainly for my own journaling purposes and my notes are not direct quotes from Julie Beck, but more what the spirit emphasized to me was important as she was speaking and answering questions posed to her from the audience.
Spritual Strength:
Sister Beck spent a lot of the evening discussing the importance of developing more faith, hope and charity. The question was posed "what keeps you up at night?" and part of her response was how can she help the women of the world increase their faith, hope and chairty. She said without these things we can't make it. She discussed the power to change from who you were to who you need to be. Sister Beck also discussed that we can fulfill our responsiblities through personal revelation and spritual gifts. We are lost without them!
Sister Beck read Alma 32:41 and talked about the importance of nourishing our faith. Don't let go of faith! Nourish it with great diligence and patience! She talked about how we live in a world of 15 second fixes. For example, if you want to fix bad breath, whiten your teeth, or even arrange to go on vacation you can do it all in about 15 seconds. However developing faith, hope and charity take time, effort, patience and diligence. We can't let ourselves get discouraged by thinking if we can't fix it now we are a failure.
Missionary work:
Someone asked her the question (I got the impression it was related to all the negativity toward the church in relation to proposition 8) about how we should respond to all the negativity and attacks on the church lately in the media etc. I think the sister asking the question was wondering how best to defend the church and sister Beck's responses were not about being able to defend the church, but instead to be an example of righteousness and a light to the world. She read a quote from President Kimball. I wish I had the direct quote and if any of you do please pass it along. It went something like my dear sisters much of the growth of the church in the last days will come because women of the church reflect righteousness seen as distinct and different in happy ways. We were encouraged to be articulate in righteous, distinct and different ways not to argue or be defensive but to live righteously and let our light shine. Sister Beck told a missionary experience she had where a stranger told her they knew she had something to do with God after she handed them a business card with the name of the church on it. What a compliment that stangers are able to pick up on the fact that we have a personal relationship with Jesus Christ just in doing regular every day business with them because of how we live and act. Julie Beck reminded us that many have not been taught how to live after the manner of happiness and she encouraged us to tell what we know in our hearts.
Visiting Teaching:
Sister Beck told a personal story where a family was in great need of assistance and she stopped by to check on them and found the needs of the family basically being ignored while the wife sat patiently while her visiting teachers gave her the message. She emphasized that visiting teaching is not about checking off a list of behaviors and is more about ministering. She told another personal story where she was assigned to visit a sister who had requested no contact with the church and she didn't know how to love this sister or what she needed so she prayed for help from the Lord because she knew he did love her and he did know her and he could help her love her and understand her too. She encouraged us to pray about our sisters and that the Lord can help us understand their gifts, heartaches etc. Sister Beck emphasized the importance of being spirit driven and not list driven in visiting teaching. She said the spirit can't speak to you if you've already decided.
Unity:
John 17:11 She said this is the best explanation of unity "to know God and Jesus Christ" and that it takes a lifetime of practice to not do or say anything that wouldn't make our Father happy.
Positive attitude:
Sister Beck talked about how a lot of her friends are pointing out blogs that they think she should check out and she is always hesitant because a lot of the time it is about "I didn't get what I wanted" out of life's experiences. Some complain they don't have kids and some complain they have too many kids and so on. She discussed that we need to focus not on what we didn't or aren't getting out of life and foucus on helping each other prepare for eternal life. We can't buy the dream, but we can earn it. Increase your faith and personal righteousness. Strengthen families and homes. Mortal life experience is to prepare us for the dream. We fought a great war in heaven just for the experience.
Education:
In addressing the single branch she encouraged them to get the best education they can afford. She encouraged them to work for their education and not to go into debt for it. She also said to work toward a profession you could support your family with and not something that is your hobby.
I am glad I was able to go back through my notes and remind myself of these important pinciples. I know I can make a lot of improvements in my own life and I am grateful I had the chance to listen to such an inspired leader to help motivate me to continue pursuing these goals.