New Beginnings and other new things

Sunday night we had New Beginnings for Maddy.  That means she will be turning 12 this year and I am in total denial.  I can't believe she is that old, because it means that I am that old!  It didn't really hit me until  I was sitting in the Young Women room, looking at all these grown up girls with high heels and make up!  But when I stood next to her and recited the theme (is anyone else amazed that they still remember it from the good ol' days?)  that was really neat.  I thought about the YW program and all it teaches and reinforces in those moldable (I am not sure that is a real word but you know what I mean) teenage years.  What an inspired program for the youth of the church.  It reaffirmed my testimony that all organizations of the church are truly inspired.  I love the words of the theme and hope that Madison will take them to heart as she will begin reciting it nearly 52 times a year for the next 8 years.  No wonder we have it permanently etched in our brains.  They have added a few new things since I was in, most recently they added a new value:  VIRTUE.  What a great one to add, and I love that the project for virtue is to read the Book of Mormon.  They also added the words "strengthen home and family" at the end of the theme. There are such great words, promises and statements in the theme:

We are daughters of our Heavenly Father, who loves us, and we love Him.
We will "stand as witnesses of God at all times and in all things,
and in all places" (Mosiah 18:9) as we strive to live
the Young Women values, which are:
Faith
Divine Nature
Individual Worth
Knowledge
Choice and Accountability
Good Works
Integrity and
Virtue.
We believe as we come to accept and act upon these values,
we will be prepared to strengthen home and family, make and keep sacred covenants,
receive the ordinances of the temple, and enjoy the blessings of exaltation. 

I think this would be something that a girl/woman could benefit from reciting to herself everyday really listening the words and promises.  The leader that is over personal progress talked about the program.  She really emphasized the journaling aspect.  I LOVED the comment she made about journaling showing our progression.  She stated that she had no record of her testimony at the age of 12 to compare where she is now.  I have always thought of journaling as recording events, spiritual and otherwise.  But I love the idea of having a reference and a way to track your progression.  I would love to have a record of my testimony through my teenage years, so much grows and changes then and it would be neat for me and others to see that too.  I am going to encourage my family to record their testimonies, hmmmm, maybe a family night.  Even if you did it once or twice a year, hey how about over General Conference Weekend.  I might be on to something here.  I might try to incorporate this into our conference weekend experience. 

Last night, we had a family night lesson, given by Madison.  She had a game about the Holy Ghost that she wanted to do so I told her to look in the FHE manual for a lesson on the Holy Ghost.  She found one on Sunday, but apparently didn't read it because Monday night after dinner she was trying to find the book so she could read it.  Now, I realized that there is some good training to be done here.  She read through it with Norm and they highlighted some things.  She stood up to begin her lesson and she just didn't know what to say. I assumed that you read through a lesson, you stand up and wing it.  That's what I do.  But as an 11 year old you just haven't acquired those skills yet. So, here in lies another FHE lesson.  "How to give a lesson"  You forget about teaching some of these things.  Oh, the list goes on as far as parenting responsibilities.  It was an eye opener to me though so that was good.  She did a great job, she sat by Norm and he just prompted her through it so it was very sweet.  We talked about the importance of providing quiet times for the Holy Ghost to be able to prompt you and communicate with you.  If we are always in a noisy, busy environment how can we hear the spirit.  So, having quiet time, without the TV, without your Ipod, without music or anything is extremely important,  I need to be better at it and better at helping to provide those times for our family.