Sunday Report: Making Eternal life a Priority

      I wanted to share the lesson presentation and handout from today's lesson,  they are linked: How to Prioritize Worksheet  and How to Prioritize Lesson Presentation (download it – it’s 26 pages).  Please take a moment to review them, make some notes on the worksheet, and keep it close so it serves as a valuable reminder what you are focusing on.

      To our sisters serving in Young Women and Primary and those who were not with us today, this is an opportunity to be apart of the lesson and to be an active part of our Relief Society through a unified purpose.
Fittingly with the start of a new year we often make decisions to start a good habit or stop a bad one, to -all around- be better.  This lesson serves as an idea of where to start. 

     We as the Chesapeake Ward  Relief Society will be focusing this year on these essential priorities that lead us to eternal life (scripture study, prayer, sacrament, and temple preparation/ attendance), our presidency lessons will focus on these aspects, our additional monthly Relief Society meetings will focus on these "essentials", helping us to  develop "necessary" skills, and to give us an opportunity to develop and enjoy the "nice to do" areas as well.  

     As each of us make the "essentials" a priority we will be individually blessed, our testimonies strengthened, and collectively as a Relief Society (and a ward) we will see and accomplish miraculous things. 

     I would encourage each of us to focus on these areas, particularly making the essentials for eternal life the first to be identified on the calendar and daily to do - make them a priority, feed your spirit first. Perhaps keep notes/ journal of your experiences or share them with a friend, visiting or home teacher, It would be wonderful to share and report your faith  promoting experiences during fast and testimony meeting or in Relief Society testimony time, as we share these experiences we are helping to build our own faith and also the faith of those whom we share.

      I testify that when we choose to put our focus of eternal life and continue to work on the essentials, we will be blessed with the time, energy, and means to do the Lord's will.  We will have a stronger relationship with our Savior, Jesus Christ and our Father in Heaven, and be more in tune with the Holy Ghost - what incredible blessings.

     Today, some of you shared with me and others your goals, I love that you shared them, I would love to have more gospel discussions with each of you - this is how we learn and grow.  It is my privilege and blessing to see your testimonies grow and your faith strengthened. 

      Prayerfully determine what you can do to be more diligently on the path to eternal life, it is a path, it is not a race, there is no "done" this is an ongoing processes for everyone for our whole life.  For some preparing to go to the temple will be a slower road than others, perhaps scheduling and establishing regular prayer and scripture study may prove difficult, perhaps there are other struggles that are personal that need to be brought to the Bishop, what ever your pursuit, continue to more forward - even if only a small step at a time "behold I say unto you, that by small and simple things are great things brought to pass" Alma 37:6. 

     I know we are capable of extraordinary things, "We are going to do something extraordinary… we expect extraordinary occasions and pressing calls." (Emma Smith, the first Relief Society president, ordained on March 17, 1842, quoted from the Minutes of the Female Relief Society of Nauvoo, 17 March 1842)

With Love,
Sister Laura Kimball
Chesapeake Ward Relief Society President