Faith > Fear

 

Five or six weeks ago, I was sitting in for our YW president in Bishop's Youth Council, when the bishop asked me to stay after for a couple of minutes so he could discuss something with me.  My heart sank, because I knew right then he was going to call me to be the YW president.  All of the reasons why I thought I couldn't do it raced through my mind--I have a busy job!  Sometimes I'm on call and I miss things!  That was never a problem when I was Primary president, but YW is a very time-intenstive job.  It wasn't so bad being a counselor in the YW presidency, but I can't say that I was particularly tearing it up in my calling.  And what about camp?!?  Camp is a critical part of the Young Women's experience, and there was no way that I would be able to get a week off in the summer to go.  Besides, I never went when I was a Young Woman.  Camping and I are...not friends.

So the bishop and I sat down, and he said, "I would like to call you to be Young Women's president in the next few weeks", and all I could say was, "But I can't go to camp!"  He said that I wouldn't have to go, and even as he said it, I knew that all of my excuses were just excuses, and that I needed to go forward with faith.  

Our YW president was away of vacation for three weeks, so I kept things under my hat as best I could.  Of course, I did blab to some people, including my husband, that the call was coming.  I prayed and thought and prayed and went to the temple and read my scriptures and prayed some more about who to call for my board and what the girls needed. 

 

There were plenty of nightmares in which I was a total failure at my calling, or at least felt like one.  As the weeks progressed, it was hard to keep positive.  I think that Satan wants so much for us to fail with our youth that he tries to get leaders to doubt themselves and forget that, who Heavenly Father calls, he qualifies.

Today, I and all of my board were sustained, and all but one (who is out of town) were set apart.  Now I feel so much more power.  I have an amazing board--like, really amazing.  If I told you who all is on my board, you'd think that it was a rock star convention.  Okay, maybe you'd have to be in our ward to know most of these people, but really, I am so excited to work with these women, and so excited to keep serving our Young Women.   We have small, but great, group of girls.