Speaking at Girls Camp

A few months ago, Susan Byers contacted me and asked me to speak at the 10th ward's girls camp up at her cabin. I was very surprised and flattered that she would ask me. That ward is so full of amazing people. I didn't feel like I had anything very special to share but I was excited about the opportunity and said that I'd love to. I knew that the theme of the camp was "Look Up" and and that it was based off of a conference talk and the movie "Up" but that's all the info I was given. I was asked to take about 30 minutes. I read the talk and enjoyed it but didn't have anything jump out at me about what to speak about.

As the time got closer, my prayers were answered concerning what I should speak to the girls about. It all started one night when I was reading the newest book by Sheri Dew. She quoted Elder Holland and some strong words he shared about comparing ourselves to others. He said:

"If you lack confidence or always sound apologetic or feel you have an inferiority complex, get over it. We all start humbly, we all think the fellow seated on our right and the woman seated on our left are more talented, are more gifted, ...and are going to do better in life than we ever will. Well, they aren't and they don't and they won't! They're just like you. We all have our fears and insecurities...but it would be fatal to stay in that swamp of insecurity, to mire down and stop, to fail to look up and fail to look ahead and fail to be believing."

 I was struck by his words "look up" and knew that I was supposed to talk about this with the girls. The next section of the book was entitled "The challenge to look up". I got the chills.

It was just so obvious to me that the girls needed to hear about looking to God for validation and not from the world. Soon, I had an outline for my 30-minute talk and wrote an 11 page document that discussed who we were in the pre-mortal life, how we came to earth with special gifts and talents and how we are all needed in God's Kingdom. I wanted to talk about how our self worth should not be based off of the amount of "likes" and "retweets" and "friends" we have on social media and that we should "look up" to our Father to be able to see ourselves as He does and to know what our life's mission should be on earth. Once we know who we have always been, it will be easier to be confident women of God in a world that doesn't celebrate women of God.

Finally the day came for me to speak and I was nervous all day long. I knew I had prepared as best I could and I had been praying for a long time to know the Lord's will. I just wanted to do the best I could and I wanted so badly for the girls to feel the Spirit and know that they are loved and important, even if they don't think they are.

Greg and Angie took the boys and I picked Danny up from work so he could come up with me. We headed up Big Cottonwood Canyon until right before Brighton and found Susan's cabin.

I felt really good about how things went. I felt the Spirit as I testified to the girls about their worth and shared experiences of my own about trying to find out who I am and the tendencies I have compare myself to others. I know that this topic was something I needed to study at this time of my life. I have no doubt that doing all the reading, studying and praying I did has helped me to gain confidence in myself.

Danny said I spoke for about 35 minutes {that is an eternity!} and that he thought I did a great job. Jen and Sue were really sweet and gave me a bouquet of candy {that I dispersed to as many people as I could that night. Otherwise, I would consume 95% of it and that wouldn't be pretty}.

A couple days ago, I got a message from Susan thanking me again for going up to camp and she wanted me to know that several of the girls mentioned me in their testimonies on the last night of camp. It was so sweet of her to tell me that because I think after something like this, you do want to know that all your work made a difference in someone's life. Even if it was just one.

I miss that ward so much and it was so fun for me to see so many of the girls that I used to teach music to in Primary! I will always be grateful for that opportunity and the growth that it gave me during a time in my life when I really needed it.