Thursday, September 6, 2018

Accepting President Nelson's Invitation to Share



I was excited when President Nelson asked us in his recent Youth Broadcast to not only study the For The Strength of Youth pamphlet, but also to pray to find a friend with which to share it!

I have written and re-written a list of friends to share these truths with many times.

I have told myself during many a Sacrament meeting that I need to go home and order a bunch of the pamphlets off of the distribution center website.

But these tasks were just not coming to fruition...until last Friday.

I have been volunteering at school lately, and that day a friend and I were chatting while she walked me to my car. 

I had to clear a few things out of my trunk in order to put my stroller back in, and one of those things was a copy of the For the Strength of Youth pamphlet.

I will admit it was sort of an odd thing to have in my trunk, and it must've looked out of place to her as she watched me remove it from a pile of life jackets left over from summer trips to the pool.

She was someone I wanted to share it with, but I just made the decision to do it in the moment.  

I turned to her and said, "I'm going to give this to you now.  I wasn't planning on it, but here it is.  This outlines the standards of behavior that we teach to our children.  Give it a read and maybe there will be some things that you like about it and want to teach to your own children."

She and I have had talks about what to teach our kids before and her children are not quite out of elementary school, so it's a good time to start talking about this stuff.

She thanked me and opened it up to the first photo, an artist's rendition of the Savior, Jesus Christ.  

She immediately asked me, "So, is this Jack Smith?"  

I had to laugh a bit, "No," I said, "This is Jesus Christ.  We worship Jesus Christ, so it is His picture that you will most often see in pamphlets like this."

Since I was headed to Palmyra that weekend, I made sure to pick up a Joseph Smith flier with his testimony in it, so she can hopefully tell the difference next time.

I haven't followed up with her just yet, but I do hope she reads it and feels that it's useful for her life and her responsibilities as a parent!

So, that's it.  Has anyone else been brave enough to share FTSOY with a friend yet?  I'd love to hear how it went!

1 comment:

  1. well being on the other end of the spectrum from youth, I attended a fireside last night and discovered an old friend I hadn't seen in years and found out that she needed a listening ear. All of a sudden there I was ministering-so many opportunities around us to practice charity and the pure love of Christ...you are doing a good work-ministering also by sharing the gospel...

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