Lessons Given in Church

I am so grateful for the opportunity I have had the past two weeks to teach in church, first in Gospel Doctrine, and then in RS.  I believe the saying that the teacher always learns more than the students.  I needed to prepare these two lessons, how applicable they were to me.  The first was on cultivating our spiritual gifts (I have included below), and the lesson I gave in RS was on the atonement.  Although deeply personal, and hard for me to do, I was so grateful to share how the atonement has been working in the life of my family over the past year and a half.  I was able to share with these women a little bit of insight as to what happened with my father being excommunicated in his late 60's and how the atonement has been there to help him, as well as all of those affected by his choices.  As I shared this lesson the power of the atonement settled over me like never before; my testimony of the power of Christ's atonement to heal not only the sinner, but those affected by the sinner (for the atonement is ALL ENCOMPASSING if we allow it to be) became solidified in my mind and heart at that moment.  I will never forget how strong the spirit was in that room.

I am also so grateful for my amazing husband whom I felt prompted to invite into RS to share how the atonement changed his life.  I knew asking him to do this would be hard for him because speaking is not something he naturally loves doing (although he is so great at it).  The spirit was present in that room, touching so many of those sisters—tears streaming down their cheeks—as Mike read some of his letters he had written in jail and bore personal testimony of the power in Christ's atonement and its ability to heal any sin and any weakness.  I was so proud of him for being a light to those women and sharing a part of his story with them.  I can't tell you how many women came up to me at the end so grateful that we had both shared our stories, and shared similar stories relatable to those we shared.  During the lesson I was also prompted to pause and open it up to testimony's.  One woman bore her testimony of Christ's atonement having healed her severe depression when modern day phsyciatry and medication could not.  She said she rarely told her story but that she felt like she needed to do so.  We talked for a bit afterwards and I told her how important it was for us to not hide behind our stories but to share them because there are so many people out there who need to feel tied to somebody, to feel understood, to feel relatable.  And that I knew, women at large, struggle with depression and there were many in that room that needed to hear her testimony.  When she shared her story I thought of my Grandma Barber, who dealt—unbenounced to many—with depression most of her life, the story of which didn't come out till after her death when my mother was transcribing her journal entries.  "How much more relatable my perfect Grandmother would have been to me, had I known she struggled with depression," I told this lady, and encouraged her to not hide behind her story, but to be proud, and to share her testimony that Christ had healed her.

I am so grateful for my past and how I HAVE LET IT DEFINE ME.  Fear is something we choose, and I am not afraid to share what has made me who I am: a stronger, better, more refined daughter of God.