Girl Power...

Saturday night I was able to attend a fireside where the speaker was Sheri Dew. I helped to organize a great group of women to go all together. There were 13 fantastic women in our group that all headed to the church on Saturday to hear Sis. Dew. She was certainly worth the effort! Her remarks were insightful and I had several "a-ha" moments while I listened to her. I thought I would pass along some of the notes I took.

Righteous women are a crucial part Heavenly Father's plan of salvation and Satan is launching an all out attack on these women. Heavenly Father knows that we are up to the challenge. He saved us for these latter days and knows we can follow through and help build the Kingdom of God. After all, we know the end of the story; God wins and Satan loses.

She told her experience of driving in the middle of the night only to run over a street lamp (the light part) that had fallen and how it totally stopped the progress of her SUV. From this she learned two lessons which she dubs the parable of the street lamp... 1. Usually the things that stop our (spiritual) progress are or start out as small things. 2. Often the answer requires backing up. (repentance and trying again to do it better)

We want to learn to follow Jesus Christ without reservation! Moroni 7:48 talks about the gifts that Heaven Father will give us as we are true followers of His Son. She made it clear that that is what is necessary to receive those gifts, not being popular, baking your own bread, or being a size two. :) So how do we become TRUE followers? She had a list of five points (though she says there are many more).

A True Follower a Jesus Christ is...

1. Willing to walk away from the world. "Do I look to the Lord or the world for counsel?" She also had these words of advise as we try to decide who to follow "It is always dangerous to take counsel from someone trying to build their own kingdom." (A-HA!)
2. Absolutely believes that Jesus is the Christ. There is great power in Him as we learn to partake of the Atonement.
3. Obedient and repents.
4. A diligent seeker. (Here was a huge a-ha moment for me. She said that many of us know just enough about the gospel to feel guilty and not enough to know the joy. That is totally me. I know I need to work on this area and as I do so I am sure I will find more of the joy that I know is there. It is after all, "good news.")
5. Seeks to become more and more pure. "Purity is the single biggest step for us hearing the message the Lord has for us through the Holy Ghost."

She concluded with saying, "there is unlimited power and influence in a woman who is a TRUE FOLLOWER."

After the fireside we headed for dessert a Cheesecake Factory. I had the raspberry, lemon cream. It was very delicious, but almost a little too light. Most of all, I was so honored to rub shoulders with the amazing women around me. I am inspired by all they do and especially who they are. I feel very blessed to have them as my friends and have their influence in my life.