This post is part of the General Conference Odyssey. This week covers the Young Women's Session of the April 2000 Conference.
When I was a young woman, I always liked hearing about the things young ladies used to be able to do in the "old days." My friend Rachael and I used to always laugh about one Personal Progress goal we heard of that was "chew your food 100 times before swallowing." President Faust listed a few more good ones:
In 1916 every female over age 14 was a Beehive girl until she entered Relief Society.…A Beehive girl had a possible 374 requirements to earn her individual award. Some of them were:
“Care successfully for a hive of bees for one season [and] know their habits.” …
“Cover 25 miles on snowshoes on any six days.” …
“During two weeks keep the house free from flies, or destroy at least 25 flies daily.”…
“Without help or advice care for and harness a team at least five times [and] drive 50 miles during one season.” …
“Clear sage-brush, etc., off of one-half acre of land.”
Those girls at that time must have been amazing! Elder Faust then says, and I love this:
In 1916 the challenges of life involved an entirely different focus, such as killing flies, clearing sagebrush, and learning to harness horses. Today such physical needs are met much more easily: flipping on a switch to control the light, adjusting the thermostat for heat and for cold. Modern conveniences grant us more free time to focus on spiritual needs and devote more time to personal service. But the basic element which should never change in the lives of righteous young women is giving service to others. Their divine role as caregivers helps noble womanhood gain “the highest place of honor in human life.” Serving others can begin at almost any age. Often the greatest service to others is one-on-one. It need not be on a grand scale, and it is noblest within the family.
I loved the description of women as "caregivers." There are many ways to interpret that, but most things I do as a wife and mother can be summed up as "caring" for someone in some way! I also loved this:
One of your unique, precious, and sublime gifts is your femininity, with its natural grace, goodness, and divinity. Femininity is not just lipstick, stylish hairdos, and trendy clothes. It is the divine adornment of humanity. It finds expression in your qualities of your capacity to love, your spirituality, delicacy, radiance, sensitivity, creativity, charm, graciousness, gentleness, dignity, and quiet strength. It is manifest differently in each girl or woman, but each of you possesses it.
I feel so sad for girls and women who don't feel they have these gifts. I think all women have them in some latent form or other—manifest differently in each of us, as President Faust says—and the main challenge is developing them as we progress! I see so many older women who have this "graciousness, gentleness, and quiet strength." I can see how their trials have refined them, and I just hope that mine will refine me in the same way!
And then this was funny:
We wonder what the Young Women requirements for Personal Progress awards will be like in the year 2016. Hopefully the values and standards of Young Women will be increasingly focused on spirituality and service to others. In the future, as in the past, women will find happiness and fulfillment as they respond to the deepest feelings of their souls.
It's still true now, seven years after that distant future day of 2016—women find happiness and fulfillment in developing our divine gifts. As my girls work on their goals for the youth program, I hope I can help them see that they will find their best selves in caring for and serving other people!
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