Guest Author - Shannon Swanson

Do you know what the Relief Society Declaration is? Did you know that the Relief Society had a declaration? From my experience, not a lot of sisters do, including myself until a few weeks ago when our Relief Society president noticed that not only was it nowhere to be found in our building, but that, to her knowledge, no one had gone over it in our meetings. It states:

We are beloved spirit daughters of God, and our lives have meaning,
purpose, and direction. As a worldwide sisterhood, we are united in our
devotion to Jesus Christ, our Savior
and Exemplar. We are women of faith, virtue, vision, and charity who:
Increase our testimonies of Jesus Christ through prayer and scripture
study.
Seek spiritual strength by following the promptings of the Holy Ghost.
Dedicate ourselves to strengthening marriages, families, and homes.
Find nobility in motherhood and joy in womanhood.
Delight in service and good works.
Love life and learning.
Stand for truth and righteousness.
Sustain the priesthood as the authority of God on earth.
Rejoice in the blessings of the temple, understand our divine destiny, and
strive for exaltation.
In Young Women, we have a motto that we recite each week and are focused on developing each virtue, so, even if we don’t want to stand and state it, why not incorporate the virtues and goals into some portion of our Relief Society meeting each week? Or at least post it somewhere in the Relief Society room.
Another idea is to state how each lesson exemplifies or relates to some part of the Declaration. There are also bookmarks, kits, etc. that you can buy online, namely at The Idea Door (www.theideadoor.com/RS.html) that could be distributed to all the sisters or used for an Enrichment night, etc.
After all, reading through the Declaration is naturally what being a part of Relief Society is all about. It is what we should be reminded of every time we attend and every time we serve in Relief Society. Every time we come away, we should have the desire to improve in at least one area stated in the Declaration. So let’s help the sisters in our wards become familiar with it, know it, use it and believe it, believe that our lives do have value, meaning and that we do all that we can and should to draw closer to Christ our Savior.
P.S. Do you know what the Relief Society motto is? I’ll give you a hint: Charity never faileth. Again, if you are like me, you had no idea what it was. And again, it may be something that we should and could relate to or be reminded of each week.