YW in Excellence

Tonight was our Young Women in Excellence program. It's where the Young Women present the programs they've been working on for personal progress. Personal Progress is a program the girls have the choice to do. The purpose is to bring them closer to Heavenly Father. I am actually doing it too. When I was in YW the program was a little different. It used to take all 6 years and have one big project. Now, you can do it in as little as a year, but each of the goals are more personal. For example, the one I'm working on right now is praying morning and evening for 3 weeks, it has a few scriptures to read, and you're supposed to record in your journal about your experience. I've always said my prayers at night, and a lot during the day, but making an extra effort in the morning has made so much difference in my life. I feel like I've been a better mother and a better wife. Receiving answers to my prayers has been a lot easier than it used to be. Just doing this ONE goal has helped me realize my Heavenly Father's love for me. I didn't always feel that way. I remember when Xander would wake up a lot in the middle of the night and just cry and fuss and I would pray so hard to let him sleep, then think that Heavenly Father didn't care about my sleep. Then I would remember how blessed I am. I mean, some of the pioneers  had it SO hard. They would have 12 children, but only have 4 or 5 live past the age of 2. ANd here I was complaining about a lously nights sleep.
I've since learned how deeply He loves me. Do you realize that if I were the only person on the face of the planet, He still would have sent Christ to earth. And Christ loves me so much, that even if they didn't think I'd ever repent, He still would have suffered and died for me. That is pretty powerful. I know that life isn't easy and that we go through a ton of pain, some more than others, but I know that we don't always understand the reasons. "There must needs be oposition in all things." We can't know joy if we've never experienced pain. We can't be happy if we've never felt sad. We can't appreciate health if we haven't been sick. I'm not saying that every sickness is going to be healed in this life. But I believe that  He wants us to return to him. I know that I can be with my family for eternity if we live the way we should. That brings me so much comfort. It helps me through my hardest times.
I didn't mean to go off on a tangent, I just have been thinking about this a lot lately.
Oh, I almost forgot, our theme tonight was COLOR ME BEAUTIFUL, so I made the girls a coloring book and we covered little boxes of crayons for them. Here is a sampling of the color pages.

You can find the images HERE on Bebo

 (though you do have to go look through the images for them).

OR, Green Jello and Carrots 

 

 

has a WAY cute set of clipart that you might be able to use for sale.

Have fun!!