Lots of lessons this Sunday...

Something happened today at church that doesn’t happen too often. When it does occur, I generally sit up and take note, because I have come to realize that it is Heavenly Father's way of getting our attention.   Two people used the same quote in their Sacrament meeting talks. What made this even more unusual was that the quote was from a General Conference talk given 14 years ago!  (When I looked it up after I got home, I was amazed that it had been 14 years...it seems like it was yesterday.)  Here's the quote, again...

The world has enough women who are tough; we need women who are tender. There are enough women who are coarse; we need women who are kind. There are enough women who are rude; we need women who are refined. We have enough women of fame and fortune; we need more women of faith. We have enough greed; we need more goodness. We have enough vanity; we need more virtue. We have enough popularity; we need more purity.--The Joy of Womanhood, Margaret D.Nadauld, October 2000 General Conference

Our high councilman (one of the two speakers today) told us an interesting story about Sister Nadauld’s talk.  She had been instructed to speak for 12 minutes.  When she practiced it, the talk lasted 14 minutes.  So, she cut out two minutes and practiced again.  This time the talk was only 10 minutes!  

At this point, the obvious move for most of us would have been to reinsert the two minutes that had been cut from the earlier version of the talk.  But Sister Nadauld did not do that.  Instead, she wrote two new minutes and added them to the original talk.  The above quote was taken from the two new minutes.  It has been quoted from again and again and again in the last 14 years.

What a great lesson this is for me!  Sometimes the obvious solution to a problem is not the best solution.  I'm going to work harder at listening to the Spirit.