May Your Burdens Be Light

This past week, I have watched as several associates throughout the week struggled with the burdens that were coming their way.  I watched as a dear family friend found out that he would be loosing his job due to a store closing in our area.  I have witnessed children feeling sad and upset that they are being bullied at school and no one wants to listen to them and their concerns.  I read today a post from an employee mentioning that she is struggling with sadness, depression, and anxiety over comments people have made with regards to her work outside of our studio.  I watched in Relief Society today as a woman broke down in tears because she was feeling the Spirit loving her when her personal world was falling apart.  I hope that through this blog and our social media page you can build a friendship and a bond with others that want to lift you up.  I can tell you that the friendships I have made through Beehive Messages have come at the right time in my life.  Your uplifting comments and love truly make my week.  I hope you will be willing to share things that are happening in your life with us so we can be there to help make your burdens light!  I would like to encourage you to read Take Up Our Cross by Elder Ulisses Soares.  This was the talk he gave at General Conference back in October of 2019.  May you find peace and joy in the words and messages he shares.

The Star Project

This past week, I had the opportunity to launch a new program at my place of business.  The Spirit has been prompting me to do this for months.  I'm calling it The Star Project!  The Star Project is a free program for youth and children ages 3 and up.  The Star Project is a service based program lead by children to provide service for other children within our community.  They meet once a week for one hour preparing and planning service they can render throughout our community.  Plus, they get to prepare and plan a mini talent show they can share with those they plan to serve.  I was blown away by the thoughts and action plans that the children had.  They wanted to take on assignments and would have jumped in to serve immediately!

We broke down the word STAR so it would have greater meaning.  Here is our acronym for STAR:
S - Service (Service provided for children, by children)
T - Talent (Each service project rendered will have a talent shared by the youth organizing the project.  Example:  mini dance routine, song sung, jokes shared, etc...)
A - Ambition (Children & youth will learn that they have to have the desire to help or they will not receive the same reward in their hearts for offering the service they are providing)
R - Respect (Participants will learn that they need to respect those they are serving as much as they need to respect who they are)

As we launched this program this past week, I noticed the pure joy & happiness that can come into the lives of others while serving.  I hope that with the organizations that you serve within the church you will discover and find ways to provide service within the community.  People are always filled with love when they open their hearts to others.

Please share below or on our Facebook Group Site what you have done recently in your community to provide a service that has brought joy & happiness into your life and the lives of others.  I'd like to see what you are doing so I can maybe use some of your ideas in our neck of the woods here in Florida. 

PS...we did launch a LIVE Facebook post today all about this topic.  We'll hope you'll join in the conversation.

Facebook Live Events 2020

Who would be interested in being part of a Beehive Messages Live Event each Sunday? I'm thinking it would be a fun way to kick-off 2020. We can discuss ideas for the classroom, at home, and life in general, etc... I'd be ready to start January 19, 2020 if we have interest.  

Physical Measurement vs. Spiritual Measurement

This past week was Youth Conference for the youth in our Stake.  My husband and I were given the assignment of teaching a workshop on the topic: This is your time.  What are you doing with it?  I won't bore you with all the lesson details.  However, I thought it would be okay to share two of the object lessons we used. 

FIRST OBJECT LESSON:
After the youth entered the Primary Room, we shared with them a tradition we have in our family.  When our children were younger, we would visit Grandma & Grandpa's house.  Prior to leaving their home, my dad/grandpa, would take all of the grandchildren out into the garage to measure them up against the garage wall.  For years these measurements happened.  As with any family growth chart, there were the typical family challenges as to who would beat whom in height.  The younger children always wanted to grow taller than the other kids.  It was a very sad day when my parents moved out of the area and the measurement wall had to be painted over.  Our own little family didn't want to see this tradition go away so we recreated it in our home.  It's not very pretty, but it is our youngest son's measurements so we are extremely proud of his growth.  You can see he is currently undergoing a very big growth spurt.

Hawkins Family Growth Chart

In order to share this experience with the youth, we decided to have them measure themselves.  Each youth was asked to get a partner.  With their partner, they went over to the wall and measured each other.  They marked their height and put their initials and date on the chart.  We had a great time watching as they all seemed to have smiles on their faces doing this simple task.  We talked about how the length of their hair changed the outcome or if they had their shoes on that made a difference too.  The key was they were having a great time measuring up and seeing how tall they were.

Measuring Activity

After several minutes of discussion, we twisted this into a spiritual activity.  We asked, what if you were asked to measure your spirituality?  How high would your mark have been?  Would your mark have made it onto the chart?  Are you at a spiritual plateau?  For fun, we shared with them that for every spiritual task or good deed that they did in life that would equal one foot in spiritual growth.  For instance, if you read your scripture today, you grew a foot.  If you performed an act of service for someone, you grew another foot.  We shared six different examples and then shared with the youth that there would be some that would be spiritual giants.  However, we are not all going to be consistent with our spiritually all the time.  Thank heavens we have a loving Heavenly Father who sent His Son to atone for our sins.  We then asked, are there some areas you could focus on with your spirituality that could help you to reach the same height spiritually on the chart as your physical marking or even higher?  There answers were exactly what we were looking for and spot on for heading in the right direction spiritually.

We hope that this object lesson is one they will remember for a life-time.  It was a great reminder to me that as long as we are focusing on the Savior and following the covenant path everyday, we can get closer and closer to our Heavenly Father.

OBJECT LESSON NUMBER TWO:

This object lesson was one that my husband brought home from his mission in Korea.  I fell in love with the concept and the idea of it so we had to use it.

We asked all the youth to find a place to stand in the room.  All of their personal items and the chairs were pushed back out of the way.  While standing in the room they were asked to blindfold themselves and not to talk during the activity.  These two simple tasks were the only instructions that were given.  No other guidance!

Youth Blindfolded - Go to the drum!

Unbeknownst to them, we had hidden a few musical instruments in the corner of the room.  Our son, Braden, began hitting the drum with a very consistent beat that remained throughout the entire activity.  My husband and I walked around the room and from time to time would shake maracas or jingle the bells on the tambourine.  Our noises moved around the room and were not consistent.  We also whispered to the youth the words "make a choice."  It was several minutes before the youth started to react to this activity.  Before long, some started moving while others remained in place the entire time.  The object of this activity was to get to the drum.

After a few minutes of playing this activity out, we allowed the youth to take the blindfolds off.  It was neat to see their reaction and the reaction of what their friends had done.  We sat and visited about what had just taken place.  The drum was consistent.  It represented the gospel and our Heavenly Father.  The other musical instruments represented Satan and his shiny objects that we sometimes like to follow.  Really anything that would lead you away from our Heavenly Father.  Lastly, we discussed those that just stood still.  Those that didn't move all had their reasons.  This could represent several things but we pointed out that you can't be afraid to try hard things or even new things in life.  Standing still won't get you anywhere in life.

If you ever have an opportunity to use this object lesson, you will not be disappointed.  It is definitely one that makes the youth think.  

WORKSHEET:

After our lesson, we presented this worksheet to the youth so they could think about how they are using their time daily.  We hope it will be an eye opener to them that they truly have more time to fill then sometimes they realize.  We encouraged them to fill their time with spiritual growth, physical activities, developing their talents & hobbies, family time, and much more!

Be a Light

You never know who is watching. Remember, you are a light to all those you come in contact with.  This message comes as a great reminder that we all have individuals that look up to us.  Be a light!

CPR

There was a beautiful testimony shared today about CPR. Maybe you have heard of this before. Remember to invite others to C - COME and See or COME and Learn about the Savior and our Church. P - PRAY to know if it is true and R - Remember to invite others to READ about the Savior in the Scriptures, especially the Book of Mormon. May we all put CPR into practice this upcoming week. We may be able to save a life!

Think. Feel. Act.

This message was shared today by one of my seminary students in a talk she gave on service. I loved it! When we are serving others do we stop and react in this way: 1. Do we THINK about that individual the way the Savior would? 2. Do we ACT the way the Savior would towards that person? 3. How do we FEEL during and after that service is performed? Do we FEEL the way the Savior would? Definitely something I want to ponder this week.

BRIGHT

This past week, I was listening to a podcast for work that highlighted the word BRIGHT. I was inspired to really think about the word BRIGHT and it's definition. Throughout the weekend, I have been pondering the meaning behind the word and how thankful I am for the lives that BRIGHTEN my day. When you think about the word BRIGHT as something that SHINES, what can we do everyday to let our LIGHT SHINE? I have noticed so many big and small things our Heavenly Father offers since really focusing on this word. I hope you will love diving into this word this week as you are finalizing your 2019 New Year's Resolutions. Maybe there will be more you do this year to let others see how BRIGHT and full of LIGHT you are. Thanks for being that LIGHT in my life!

12 Days of Ministering

As a young girl, I lost two very dear cousins of mine to cancer.  It was during that time frame that our family started a tradition of celebrating the 12 Days of Christmas.  Each year, our father would spearhead organizing countdowns large and small for families in need.  This tradition has been one of my favorite to participate in during the holiday season.  This year, I would like to share a 12 Days of Ministering countdown.  I hope it will be a way for you to have a little fun remembering those that you minister to in addition to promoting the Light the World campaign.  Merry Christmas to all!

Truly Converted

When we have faith in Jesus Christ, repent, and are baptized, we are prepared to receive the gift of the Holy Ghost.

In preparation for my lesson tomorrow morning on Act Chapter 2, I was taken by the word RECEIVE in the statement above.  Look at all the other key words used prior to the word RECEIVE.  We must have faith, repent, and be baptized.  Once these steps are complete, then we can RECEIVE the wonderful gift of the Holy Ghost.  As we RECEIVE that third member of the Godhead into our lives our hearts will change and we can be truly converted unto Him, our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ.

I want the youth to take some time thinking about when their hearts have been changed, when they felt converted, and how they acted once that feeling overwhelmed them.  I created this simple little worksheet so they can take some personal time to really ponder and pray about those moments in their lives.  I hope that your youth will visit these memories too!