Self Worth

Girls Camp for our stake is next week, and as the Stake Relief Society Presidency, we wanted to go and be supportive... make a presence, however small, in an effort to help with transitioning girls from YW to Relief Society, etc.

To make a rather long complicated story short... Wednesday we found out that we are the Tuesday night fireside... 5 days to come up with a fun, creative, spiritual, deep, meaningful fireside for all the young women in the stake around the theme of Self Worth… along the lines of Johnny Lingo...

Needless to say, this wasn’t exactly what we we’re looking for, but never the less, here we are and I’m hoping you can help me gain some perspective on a few topics we've thrown around for possibly using in the fireside:

One, identify with where they are now.
Being a teen is tough, and feeling good about yourself as a teen is even tougher. Think of a time when you felt of worth, and when you didn’t feel of worth.

Okay because I'm weird, and have a terrible memory... or maybe I'm just suppressing them... I'm having a hard time thinking of times when I was teased/tortured/picked on... as a youth. I'm sure it happened I was such an average high school student, but specific situations aren't coming to mind.

Second, do parents have any credibility in the eyes of the teen, when it comes to bolstering self worth? Did you publicly discredit it, while silently hanging on it's every word? Did you accept it, or did you totally dismiss it as – You have to say that you’re my parent?

Third, Anorexic Eyes
So many teens look at themselves through what we call “Anorexic Eyes.” They don’t see themselves the way other see them, they don’t see themselves the way their parents see them, and they definitely don’t see themselves the way the Lord sees them. How to you help them look at themselves through Eternal eyes? How do you help them see themselves the way the Lord sees them… and if that’s too much of a leap, how to you help them look in the mirror with healthy eyes instead of anorexic eyes.

Fourth, how does a teen build her own sense of self worth?
I keep going back to having a personal relationship with Jesus Christ and Heavenly Father. But I know there are other things … like the John Bytheway Back Pack story/analogy… He asks the question of why when we wake up in the morning and look in the mirror do we fill our back packs with negative rocks – I’m ugly, my hair never looks right, why does my nose look this way, my clothes are all wrong, etc. – that simply weight us down. If we would replace the negative rocks with positive pebbles (honestly I’m not sure what he called them) that would encourage and uplift us – we’d be better able to sustain the daily battle.

Fifth, the power and ability we have to lift and build others sense of self worth.
Remember the story about the girl in the seminary class. She sat in the back, always kept her head down and was a mess – literally. The teacher asked two students to do something two simple things, say hello to her, and walk with her across the street. Those two very simple acts, transformed her. She started to walk with her head up, she looked at people, she started to smile. She started to care about her clothes, combed her hair. She was transformed.

I hope this makes sense. I’m looking for stories, talks, experiences – anything that might give us some good material to utilize in this fireside. We have a conference call scheduled for tomorrow at 1pm during Sam’s naptime. So any insight you can share would be helpful.

First primary talk

Emily is giving a talk in Primary today. The theme for this month is: "I will follow Heavenly Father's plan for me in Faith." We've been asked to limit her talk to 2 minutes and keep it simple for children of all ages.

I found the following story and since it won't work for Emily's talk (too long and complicated) I thought I'd post it here:

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Thomas S. Monson, “Gift of Faith,” Friend, Nov. 1987, inside front cover

The gift of faith at times takes the form of miraculous healings of body and mind. However, faith is usually expressed in the simple trust and calm assurance that God will provide.

On my first visit to the fabled village of Sauniatu in Samoa, so loved by President McKay, my wife and I met with a large gathering of small children. At the end of our messages to these shy, beautiful youngsters, I suggested to the native Samoan teacher that we go ahead with the closing exercises. As he announced the final hymn, I suddenly felt compelled to greet personally each of the 247 children. But the time was too short for such a privilege, so I ignored the impression. Before the benediction, however, I again felt this strong impression to shake the hand of each child. I told the teacher that I wanted to shake the hand of each child. He displayed a broad Samoan smile before relaying my intentions in Samoan to the children. They all beamed when they heard his translation.

The teacher then told me the special reason for their joy. He said, “When we learned that President McKay had assigned a member of the Quorum of the Twelve to visit us in faraway Samoa, I told the children that if each one would earnestly and sincerely pray and exert faith like in the Bible accounts of old, the Apostle would visit our tiny village at Sauniatu, and through their faith, he would be impressed to greet each child with a personal handclasp.” Tears flowed as each of those precious boys and girls walked by and whispered softly to us a sweet talofa lava (hello). The gift of faith had been evidenced.