I’m a member of “The Relief Society” which is the oldest and largest women’s organization in the world. There are about 6 million members in 170 countries.
I love the Relief Society.
When someone has a baby, or is on bed rest someone is there to give a meal, clean the house or massage a foot.
When a loved one passes away the relief society is there to help with the funeral, make meals for it and the family, and lend a shoulder to cry on.
When an elderly lady needs to be taken to a doctor appointment, or groceries picked up, or just have someone to visit with, someone is always ready and willing to go and help.
We make quilts and humanitarian packages and ship them off to 3rd world countries, or when there is need of disaster relief. I have a friend who crochets leper bandages.
The Relief society motto is “Charity Never Faileth”.
Tonight was a wonderful night. I was able to go to a relief society meeting where we celebrated the 180th birthday of the relief society! We all brought a pot luck dish to share, and beautifully decorated cakes were the center piece (and dessert) of each table.
The focus tonight was the history of the relief society, how it started in general, and the history of the relief society in our area. There were wonderful stories of love and service. One in particular stood out to me.
Our current relief society president shared this story. Back in 2007 her family was driving to Hershey PA for a family vacation. Her 16 year old daughter was driving one of the vehicles (they took two cars because grandparents were coming on the trip with them). She was still learning to drive and only had her permit at the time. Something happened, and she lost control of the car on the freeway.
The grandmother was killed… and her 12 year old sister died shortly after as well.
Of course this was devastating to the family and for this young girl who was driving.
It took 17 months before she could get back behind the wheel of a car. Finally one morning she turned to her mother and asked if she could drive to church that morning. Mom was excited to see that she was starting to take a very big step in her personal healing.
As they were driving to church another vehicle ran a red light and t-boned their minivan. The Mom broke her back… thankfully no one died.
She said that she couldn’t help but question “why now?” She was terrified that her daughter would never dare get back behind the wheel of a car or ever find that independence of having a driver’s license.
She struggled with what to do to help her daughter overcome her fear of driving. With her broken back she couldn’t teach her daughter to drive, and her husband was extremely busy at this time in his work.
She prayed to know what she could do to help her daughter.
Then she decided to ask the relief society for help.
The next Sunday at church she passed around a signup sheet for anyone who would be willing and able to help teach her daughter to drive.
The signup sheet filled up immediately.
Ladies took turns driving around with her daughter and giving her tips and taught her how to drive. One day with a relief society sister in the car she finally faced her greatest fear and drove on the freeway again… she hadn’t done that sense her sister had died.
A few weeks later she was able to get her drivers license.
That’s what the relief society is all about.
We are here to help anyone, in any way we can.
Tonight I’m so grateful to be a part of such a wonderful organization where we lift up each other, and help each other, and teach each other, and love each other.
It’s so neat to think that Florence was also a member of the relief society. It’s just one more thing that makes me feel closer to her.
Of course I have heard of the Relief Society but didn't know much else...I love charities that help at home..thanks for this post.
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