The Middle of the Cornfield

Some of my readers have asked me to post my thoughts that I shared at a meeting tonight for the women’s group at church… so if you are looking for a spiritual lift about sisterhood, read on….

Thoughts are taken from the following talks:

Belonging is our Sacred Birthright – Bonnie D Park

Rejoice in Every Good Thing – Chieko N Okazaki

Strength of Sisterhood – VT message Ensign July 1993

Our Diversity, Our Sisterhood – VT message Ensign Feb 1992

Please go to www.lds.org if you wish to look up these talks and messages and read them in their entirety.

From our beginning RS has a history of touching lives and mending spirits. When it was organized in March 1842, those 20 sisters were united in purpose and faith but their conditions in life were quite different.  Several were wives of church leaders and had young families, one was a new bride of a storekeeper who was not a member of the church. Others were unmarried, but each brought unique strengths to begin this charitable work.

As we look around this room… we see women of different ages, races and backgrounds, different educational, marital and professional statuses, women with children, grandchildren and no children and women who are healthy and those who are limited by illness. We need to rejoice in the diversity of OUR sisterhood. It is the diversity in our circumstances that gives us compassionate hearts and it is the diversity of our spiritual gifts that benefits the church.

As Paul taught, we are all part of the body of Christ;

1 Cor 12:20-21, 27

"But now are they many members, yet but one body. And the eye cannot say unto the hand, I have no need of thee: nor again the head to the feet, I have no need of you. (27) Now ye are the body of Christ, and members in particular"

I have a picture of a body. This body represents the Victor Falls RS. I invite each of you to come up here sometime tonight and write your name and something that you have to offer our sisterhood. If you can’t think of anything, make something up…If there are sisters that are not here tonight, feel free to recognize a talent or quality they share as well… it could be giving hugs, or playing the piano or making yummy treats, or a listening ear or a shoulder to cry on….… EVERY ONE of us has something that we can offer to make us one body.

(The “body” will be passed around next time we meet on Sunday, in case you didn’t get the chance to leave your mark on what has affectionately become known as “Frank”…. ask Mandi about the name..hehehe)

“The spirit of unity motivates us to value our diversity as we blend our efforts. Each of us should prize each other gifts.  We need to discover the talents of others and we need to not only surround ourselves with similarities, but we need to celebrate and enjoy our differences as we bless each other’s lives. By immersing ourselves in each other’s differences we create unity in our diversity. We each need to assign ourselves as a “committee of one” to create the attitudes of inclusion, acceptance and unity wherever we find ourselves…. "

In these perilous times, I find comfort in the promise that “if we are prepared we shall not fear”. RS helps us to be prepared, not just temporally, but spiritually. But RS cannot help in our preparation without our participation.  There are sisters among us, probably even some here tonight, that feel they don’t fit in RS, or that they somehow don’t belong. Some may have feelings of being too old, or too young, too rich or too poor, too intelligent or too uneducated, but NONE of us is too different to belong. None of us are invisible. None of us can change nor take away the burdens of others, but we can include and belong to each other in love.

We can find a piece of Zion by becoming “of one heart and one mind.” For “if ye are not of one”, says the Lord, “ye are not mine”. President Hinkley has said that if we “will be united and speak with one voice, our strength will be incalculable.” As sisters in Zion, how do we become one? The same way we belong to a spouse or a family: we share who we are, our feelings, our thoughts, our hearts.

Sister Park tells of a mother who tenderly expressed to her daughter, who was just old enough to join RS, how her RS sisters had nurtured her from her early marriage: “They have brought meals and hugs in time of sorrow, laughter and support for celebration. They have taught me the gospel by visiting me and letting me visit them. They have allowed me to make mistakes on their time.” This mother then explained to her daughter how the daisies in their garden came from Carolyn, the lilies from Venice, the buttercups from Pauline. The daughter was amazed. Her mother replied, “These women are my sisters in every way, and I am grateful to bring you into their care.”

It’s the variety in a garden that contributes to its beauty – we need daisies and lilies and buttercups; we need gardeners who water, nurture and care.

Boyd K Packer said “too many sisters … think that RS is merely a class to attend… Sisters, “he counseled, “you must graduate from thinking that you only attend RS to feeling that you belong to it! Our sense of belonging begins on Sunday as we hear each other’s voices. No teacher should give her lesson to a group of silent sisters, because the lesson is OUR lesson. Belonging is being needed, loved, and missed when you’re away; belonging is needing, loving, and missing those when they are away. THAT is the difference in attending and belonging. RS is not just a Sunday class; it is a divine gift to us as women. RS needs YOU.” And you know what? We each need RS. When we don’t participate, we are depriving ourselves AND we are depriving the RS.

Hold hands with the person next to you, like this…

Your fingers represent your strengths and the space between your knuckles represents your weaknesses. When we take each other by the hand and work together, our strengths compensate for each other’s weaknesses.

Corn field…. Corn stalks on the edges are small and weak and often don’t produce any corn. The more you get to the center of the field, the taller and stronger and more fruitful the corn becomes.  Corn grows taller in the middle of the field and so it is with us spiritually. We will grow taller and be stronger and more capable of doing the Lord’s work if we are growing in the middle of the field. We need to look around us and figure out who is standing on the edge of our corn field and draw them in and help them to understand that they DO belong and that we NEED their diversity.

I have such a testimony of the importance of our sisterhood. I have, at times, been on the outside of the cornfield and I have also been on the inside of the cornfield and I can testify to you that it is so much better being on the inside. I have made the mistake of waiting to be invited in and that waiting only made me feel more left out. Just like the corn stalks, the sisters on the edges of our cornfield are hungry and thirsty for companionship and fellowship from the sisters that are in the middle of the cornfield. Don’t wait for an invitation…. Be bold and get yourself to the middle of the field, where you can fully partake of what our RS has to offer you and share your diversity with RS…