Worth It

Yesterday was a long day!  Jeff and I had leadership training in St. Louis with Sister Elaine S. Dalton.  She is the General Young Women President - basically over all the young women in the whole world - and she was so inspiring.  Her concern and love for all young women was so evident in her manner and her words.  All of the counsel given was calculated to help us gear our efforts to lift and strengthen them.  I was impressed by her examples (i.e., likening repentance to running a marathon), and her clarity.

That evening, she spoke to the young women at a fireside. Savannah and two other young women from our ward were there. Unable to find a separate ride to bring them down later, they willingly gave up their Saturday and rode with us, which meant they arrived four hours before their meeting and hung out in a classroom at the church during ours.

If Jeff and I had given Sister Dalton a list of things to talk about that would help Savannah, she couldn't have come any closer to speaking right to her!  It was as if her talk was tailor made for Savannah.  Savannah was sitting on the 2nd row and Sister Dalton made eye contact with her several times and then spoke encouraging words to her after the meeting as she held her hand and told her how special she is.  It was perfect!

It was worth the 6.5 hours in the car to get there and back.  It was worth the 30 minutes of practically-standing-still-traffic we endured on the way down.  It was worth listening to three giddy girls laughing hysterically all the way home as they texted boys.  It was worth finding someone to watch our other kids pretty much all day.  It was worth any inconvenience to be lifted and taught and inspired for 4 hours by a woman called of God.  Yesterday was a long day, but it was worth it!