Sharing the Gospel

So, I'm not the best at opening my mouth and sharing the gospel. I know that I should do more, but I get a bit intimidated and worry about offending anyone by being too pushy. Our ward and stake have challenged us to share the gospel and to invite friends to have gospel experiences. With the work I do now, I actually have more opportunites to share the gospel, but need to be careful also.

Tonight I was reading the Ensign and I found a good solution to my problem. There is a great article on how blogging can be a great forum for sharing my testimony in a very un-pushy way. I can do that. I can express some the the feelings I have when I hear a great talk or listen to a great lesson. I felt such wonderful things as I listened to General Conference. There were wonderful talks on recognizing the Spirit, having the Holy Ghost with you all the time, on giving service, and on the importance of having a testimony of the Book of Mormon.

But what I really wanted to tell about today on my blog is the wonderful lesson we had in Relief Society today. I had time this morning to read the lesson before our church time. It was a great lesson from the teachings of the prophet Joseph Smith. It was on "Family: the sweetest union for Time and for Eternity". It was a great lesson to read. But I certainly got the most out of it by the lesson given by our sweet teacher, Sister Dixon.

First she talked about how many times we hear a lesson and we think of what a great lesson this would be for so and so. I think I do that often. I wish someone there was with me to hear the lesson - not acknowledging how much I need the lesson for myself. (That was my first great lesson of the day!)

Next, she handed out paper and pencils and had us divide the paper into four sections or Applications we would be able to use for ourselves of things we learned from the lesson. The lesson of course was about the way to make family a sweet union for this time on earth as well as for eternity. We completely skipped the part where he talked to the men - because that is not applicable to us. Our section headings were "Me - as a Wife", "Me - as a Mother", "Me - as a Daughter", and "Me - as a Sister". There were sections in the lesson that then spoke to me in all of those different applications.

One of the things that really hit me hard both when I read the lesson this morning, again in Relief Society, and then at the dinner table when I was talking to my family about it, was the beautiful relationship that was had in Joseph Smith's family. He spoke so lovingly of his parents and of his siblings. The example was given of how at age 17, Joseph would sit with his parents and siblings and teach them about what he was learning to be prepared for what he had been called to do. I wondered what I would have done as a sibling had I been in that situation. Would I have listened to any of my brothers or sisters tell about a strange spiritual experience and been receptive to what they had to say, or would I have dismissed them because I knew they had too many short-comings to be able to know what they were talking about?

Then I wondered what I would have done as a parent in the same situation. Would I take the time to listen and learn or would I feel the need to question and correct as I often do? The answer is that I don't know, but I hope that as I've learned this lesson I'll be better at being a Sister and a Mother because I can better apply the lesson taught and example given by Joseph Smith and his family.