Mother Daughter Activity!
Alayna is in Activity Days and they have a really neat tradition each May. They invite all of the girls to bring a talent or accomplishment they have achieved that year and bring it to display. The mom’s are all invited to come as well and we all get to see the girls’ displays and then we get to do a craft together, eat treats, and take pictures together. They have an inspirational thought at the end that helps tie it all together.
This year Alayna chose to display her swimming achievements and a drawing she made. 🙂
For the craft we painted these little hand mirrors. Of course my little artist had to apply her own artistic style. 😛 However, it did not have enough time to dry so there was some streaking…darn it. 😛
We did our best to fan it with paper plates but a hair dryer would have really saved the day! 🙂
They took some pictures of all of us. This of course is my favorite part. Seeing my sweet girl and how much she’s grown from year to year. She’s becoming a young woman before my eyes! <3
The Activity Day girls. There were several missing. A lot of the 6th graders were gone to Science Camp.
At the end Sis. Esperson gave an inspirational thought from a talk by Sister Cheryl Esplin who was the 1st Counselor in the Primary General Presidency, called “He Asks Us To Be His Hands.”
“Speaking at a BYU devotional, Sister Sondra D. Heaston asked: “What if we could really see into each other’s hearts? Would we understand each other better? By feeling what others feel, seeing what others see, and hearing what others hear, would we make, and take, the time to serve others, and would we treat them differently? Would we treat them with more patience, more kindness, and more tolerance?”
Sister Heaston shared an experience from when she served at a Young Women camp. She said:
“One of our … devotional speakers … taught us about ‘becoming.’ One of her statements … was, ‘Be someone who reaches out to know and serve others—throw away the mirrors and look through the window.’
“To demonstrate this, she called up one of the young women and asked that young woman to stand facing her. [She] then pulled out a mirror and put it between the young woman and herself so that she, [the speaker], was looking into the mirror while she tried to talk with the young woman. Not surprisingly, it didn’t even begin to be an effective or heartfelt conversation. This was a powerful object lesson that illustrated how difficult it is to communicate with and serve others if we are too worried about ourselves and see only ourselves and our needs. [She] then put away the mirror, pulled out a window frame, and put it between her face and the young woman’s face. … We were able to see that the young woman had become [her] focal point and that true service requires that we focus on the needs and emotions of others. Ofttimes we are so worried about ourselves and our own busy lives—as we look in mirrors while trying to look for opportunities to serve—that we do not see clearly through the windows of service.” “
It was a beautiful message and we all left feeling more inspired to look for opportunities to serve others.
