How has Relief Society blessed your life?
"I asked this question of President Hinckley. He responded: 'Relief Society has blessed my family and the family of my dear wife for some seven generations. Since the earliest days of the Church, our mothers and daughters have been taught of their obligations to those in distress. They have been schooled in the finer points of homemaking, encouraged in their spiritual development, and guided in the realization of their full potential as women. Much of this has taken place in Relief Society and has then been brought home to bless the life of each member of my family.'"
-- Sister Bonnie D. Parkin, "How Has Relief Society Blessed Your Life?" Ensign, Nov. 2004, 34-35
Relief Society (Hover)
I am surprised no Sisters have answered this, but I will nevertheless share my view as I know Relief Society has helped me in many ways. Firstly, it has given the Sisters in my life certain values that in turn has blessed my life. For instance, my wife attends home making and learns a craft, art, skill, or even develops a characteristic that in turn benefits our family. Secondly, many times Relief Society has been the group that places the finishes touches on projects that just could not be done by anyone else, many times those 'projects' surrounded my own personal life and welfare.
In the First Relief Society Presidency the Counselors of Emma Smith were: Sarah m. Cleveland and Elizabeth Ann Whitney
The greatest impact that relief society has had on my life has been the influence it has had on my mother and my wife. The organization consistently strives to raise the bar and stand a little taller as President Hinckley has stated many times. In many ways their stalwart example of charity and un-conditional love for others has helped me in priesthood leadership. I am currently serving as a first counselor in a bishopric and am amazed at the dedication and skills these sisters have in carrying out he work of the Lord. I have not only been blessed spiritually by the Relief Society, but have also been temporally. I am talking about food! They are awsome cooks! How in the world do they do that? My hat goes off to these sister in the relief Society.
From the minutes of the first organizational meeting of the Relief Society:
QUOTE |
The purpose of the Society, according to the minutes of the first meeting, was "that the sisters might provoke the brethren to good works in looking to the wants of the poor, searching after objects of charity and in administering to their wants; to assist by correcting the virtues of the female community." This first, organizational meeting took place on 17 March 1842 in the Nauvoo Lodge Room (second story of the red brick store in Nauvoo). Joseph Smith, Jr., John Taylor, Willard Richards, Emma Smith, and 19 other women attended. |
RELIEF IS MORE THAN JUST A SOCIETY
See: https://www.abc4.com/local_news/opinion/sto...54-7FCE30BB9118
TAYLORSVILLE, Utah - A year ago, Cathy Kendall suffered a stroke that left her comatose and unable to move or breathe on her own. When her husband's sick leave and vacation days were exhausted, the Relief Society stepped in and made sure the Kendall family was taken care of.
"This organization [Relief Society] is divinely made, divinely authorized, divinely instituted, divinely ordained of God to minister for the salvation of the souls of women and of men. Therefore there is not any organization that can compare with it, that can be compared with it, that can ever occupy the same stand and platform that this can, unless the Lord will organize another. . . .
"Make [Relief Society] first, make it foremost, make it the highest, the best and the deepest of any organization in existence in the world. You are called by the voice of the Prophet of God to do it, to be uppermost, to be the greatest and the best, the purest and the most devoted to the right."
Joseph F. Smith, Teachings of Presidents of the Church: Joseph F. Smith [1998], 184