May I relax yet?
Today has been a long day. I gave a talk in sacrament meeting this morning. I had been preparing for it for three weeks, and felt like I had a good grasp of it three days ago, but last night I started getting the jitters. I ran through my talk in my mind, and tried to time it, and ended up with it being ten minutes longer than I wanted it to be, but that may have been because I stopped to help Hannah with a knot in her cross stitch project in the middle. I worried that I wouldn't remember everything that I wanted to say. I worried that I would repeat myself, or lose my train of thought and not have time to get through everything I wanted to say. As I laid in bed last night waiting to fall asleep I ran through it in my head again. And again. This morning I was still feeling nervous. I guess one of the benefits of having 9am church is that I was able to get it over with quickly. Unfortunately I was the concluding speaker so I had to sit through a youth speaker, an adult speaker, and a rest hymn before I finally got to speak. Speaking itself wasn't so bad. I had a good amount of time, my note cards helped me stay on track and I said most of the things that I wanted to speak about. I bore my testimony and sat down. Sacrament meeting ended on time. (If you'd like to read it, or something very similar to it, a draft is posted here.)
After sacrament meeting came primary, where I was in charge of Sharing Time. In Primary, we follow an outline that pretty much tells us what to teach for four weeks every month. Unfortunately today was a fifth Sunday so I didn't have a lesson plan written out for me. Instead, since we've been learning about how the scriptures are the word of God this month, I asked a few children to share their favorite scripture stories. In Junior Primary, we heard about Daniel in the Lion's den, Lehi's dream, Noah, and Adam. I sort of walked the young children through the stories, asking leading questions, but the gist of the stories got out. In Senior Primary, I had asked my own children (Hannah, John and Joshua) to share their favorite scripture stories. Hannah told the story of Jacob and Esau, John told about Ammon, and Joshua acted out the story of Zachariah being told about John the Baptist's birth. (It was kind of fun watching him go back and forth between Zachariah and the angel as he acted out both parts!) Anyway, it went well.
After church we were able to come home and relax, but tonight I headed back to the church for our ward's Priesthood Preview. For some reason, the Primary is now responsible for organizing this meeting which is to introduce eleven year old boys to the responsibilities of the Priesthood. In the last few weeks, I had figured out a basic outline, assigned the YM president to assign young men to give the talks and ask the young men who do the music in priesthood to select appropriate songs and provide the music for the meeting. I asked the bishop to conduct and give a talk directed to the parents. I assigned one of my counselors to make the invitations, and my other counselor and my secretary made refreshments and brought them to my house this afternoon. All I had to do tonight was show up with the refreshments, set them up on a table, and clean up after. Easy, huh? Anyway, the meeting went well. All the boys were there that had been invited. The songs were sung, the talks were spoken, and the Spirit was present. What more could I have asked for?
So now it is all over and done. I can relax. I don't even have to teach another sharing time for a couple months.
After sacrament meeting came primary, where I was in charge of Sharing Time. In Primary, we follow an outline that pretty much tells us what to teach for four weeks every month. Unfortunately today was a fifth Sunday so I didn't have a lesson plan written out for me. Instead, since we've been learning about how the scriptures are the word of God this month, I asked a few children to share their favorite scripture stories. In Junior Primary, we heard about Daniel in the Lion's den, Lehi's dream, Noah, and Adam. I sort of walked the young children through the stories, asking leading questions, but the gist of the stories got out. In Senior Primary, I had asked my own children (Hannah, John and Joshua) to share their favorite scripture stories. Hannah told the story of Jacob and Esau, John told about Ammon, and Joshua acted out the story of Zachariah being told about John the Baptist's birth. (It was kind of fun watching him go back and forth between Zachariah and the angel as he acted out both parts!) Anyway, it went well.
After church we were able to come home and relax, but tonight I headed back to the church for our ward's Priesthood Preview. For some reason, the Primary is now responsible for organizing this meeting which is to introduce eleven year old boys to the responsibilities of the Priesthood. In the last few weeks, I had figured out a basic outline, assigned the YM president to assign young men to give the talks and ask the young men who do the music in priesthood to select appropriate songs and provide the music for the meeting. I asked the bishop to conduct and give a talk directed to the parents. I assigned one of my counselors to make the invitations, and my other counselor and my secretary made refreshments and brought them to my house this afternoon. All I had to do tonight was show up with the refreshments, set them up on a table, and clean up after. Easy, huh? Anyway, the meeting went well. All the boys were there that had been invited. The songs were sung, the talks were spoken, and the Spirit was present. What more could I have asked for?
So now it is all over and done. I can relax. I don't even have to teach another sharing time for a couple months.
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