The greatest examples for me are the women in my own family,
whose lives are intertwined with my own.
However, for your purposes, I wish to share another example – a woman
who is not directly related to me, who I have known but had only sporadic
interaction with over the years, and whose example reminds me of the Savior in
how He constantly went about doing good.
This woman and her husband were our next door neighbors
throughout my childhood. I remember how
she cared for her mother who lived across the street, and how she used to go up
and down the street helping neighbors.
She was the stake Relief Society President at the time I received my
mission call and she invited me into her home and taught me about the Relief
Society organization. Little did I know
that I would need to “go and do likewise” in the mission that I served. Several times during my mission I was
responsible for teaching new Relief Society leaders in small units of the
Church.
It has been many years since I lived in my childhood home,
but whenever I visited, it was a treat to see my neighbor and her husband. They were very good to my mother after she
became a widow, and they always treated me as if I was someone special.
My sister and I bought our parents’ home after they both
passed, and I had the opportunity to go out last Fall to prepare the backyard
and garden for winter. The weather was
threatening, but I had only a few days in which I was there and could work on
the place. The last morning, I looked at
the amount of work still unfinished, and thought to myself, “well, I’ll just do
as much as I can and the rest will have to wait until next year.” That’s when the miracle occurred. I was able to complete each of the remaining
tasks, with the exception of tilling the soil.
I stopped over at my neighbor’s house to ask if I could get in touch
with her daughter and pay to have that done.
Instead, she, her son, and daughter came over and helped me haul 23 bags
of trash to the curb for the city’s garbage pick-up that day. As I drove away, her daughter was finishing
the tilling, at no charge to me.
Reflecting back, I am still amazed at how the impossible was achieved,
but know that once again I had experienced the grace of God “after all we can
do.” It is most humbling to have that
kind of support.
But that’s not the end of the story. Early this month, I got a card from this
neighbor and her husband. I’d given her
my address in case she needed to get in touch with me regarding our renters. The note was brief. It included President Eyring’s statement in
the October 2011 General Conference, “Spiritual staying power comes from
working past the point when others would have taken a rest,” along with the
comment that this statement reminded them of me. Their card
came when I was preparing for a major conference and was having
difficulty pulling my thoughts together as to what to say. It was exactly what I needed to encourage me to stay focused and meet my
current responsibilities.
There’s still more.
Tonight I called a brother who I have been concerned about and have been
praying and fasting for during the past couple of months due to the incredible
pressure and deadlines that he is has with his work. I learned that this good woman and her
husband had sent a similar card to my brother.
It has sustained him, as it did me.
How grateful I am for such a woman in my life and the life
of those I love. She is an example of
Proverbs 31:10, 31 – “Who can find a virtuous woman? for her price is far above
rubies… Give her of the fruit of her
hands; and let her own works praise her in the gates.”
From Helen Chipman
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