Wedding Dress Story
This is a devotional we did at girls camp. The girls were so affected by this program I would recommend it to any group!! This is what we did and the story we used. You can change or adapt it to your needs. Every time you see a group of x's on the program we cut a piece of the wedding dress off!! Yes! You heard me right we took a pair of scissors and cut off a piece of the dress. We saved the dress pieces and we are doing a repentance standards night where we will be putting the dress back together. I called the devotional "Decide Now".
I am so glad you are here today! I just want to congratulate
each of you for taking a full week out of your schedules to be in the “best”
place possible. Thanks for deciding now what is most important.
(something funny)
I
recently had the chance to see a leadership training that Sister Elaine Dalton
did. And she said some things there that I would love for all of you to know
about! She spoke on the value virtue and what they actually mean by virtue.
When I need to know the meaning of a word I like to go to the scriptures and
find what Heavenly Father means. So I found a scripture in D&C 121:45 that
talks about virtue. (Read Scripture) It just so happens that there is a little
more explanation for the word virtue in that scripture. There is a little b
there. So I check the bottom of the page where the little b is and it says
chastity. Oh… that explains it all! But wait what does chastity mean? In the
FSOY they call chastity sexual purity. Ah when I say sexual purity or virtue I
think that there are a lot of choices involved in remaining virtuous. With that
in mind I would like you to listen to a song called virtue. (SONG VIRTUE) (I also showed the clip about little kids not eating a chocolate chip or something so they could get a cupcake if they waited. It is by Jenny Phillips and is called Worth Waiting For)
I would like to talk about choices for a minute. I have a
bunch of sticks here that all look very similar don’t they? So at one end of
each stick is a choice for you to make. (And there are hundreds each day) The
choice at the end of this stick leads you to only one place…The other end of
the stick. Let’s say the choice I make at the end of this stick is to not shower
while I’m at girls camp. Lol. What is my only choice at the end of this stick?
Yes! You got it! You are going to be very stinky by the time camp is done.
Let’s try this stick. I am going to choose to brush my teeth. So at the end of
this stick is clean teeth. Hmm… I like this stick, it is a choice to be nice to
one person that I wouldn’t usually be nice to today. What would be at the end
of this one? (have the girls choose some sticks for everyday choices we make)
Let’s talk about the agency stick or sticks Heavenly Father gives us. There are
only 2 choices or sticks. Let’s see what they are lets read from the scriptures
( 2 Nephi 2:27) What are the 2 sticks? (Eternal life or Captivity and Death) So
let’s picture these sticks as very very long sticks lasting our whole life
through! Of course there are the hundreds of choices we make each day that lead
us onto one or the other stick. So if I don’t want to go to church on Sunday
and I don’t ever go again, which of these 2 sticks would I be on? Ok perfect
that is the long term consequence but what is at the end of this very short
stick of not going to church? (loss of spirit) That is the short term
consequence. So whose obligation is it to “Decide Now” to be on this good stick
that leads to eternal life? (mine, yours) Good. So when your sticks are all
spread out as choices running to one of these sticks called Eternal Life or Captivity
and death does it affect just you? No! If I had the power to hand you the
eternal life stick or the Captivity and death stick which would you want me to
hand to you? Heavenly Father and Jesus have done all the work to make it
possible for everyone to have Eternal Life so all you have to do is “Decide
Now” to pick up that stick and keep it with you throughout your life. Can your
Mom or Dad keep the eternal life stick in your hand? Only you can “Decide Now”
to pick up and keep the eternal life stick throughout your life. By making the
correct everyday decisions you will have the Eternal life stick in your hand
all the time.
So let’s
talk about that virtue or sexual purity stick. It is a long stick in your life.
I would like to tell you a story about a girl who did not “decide now” to pick
up her Eternal Life stick.
Sheena
was 12 years old and very excited about going into Young Women’s. She had great
plans of a temple marriage with her tall, dark and handsome. She also had great
parents but she chose the wrong friends that very year. ######## Even though
her parents always told her that if her friends didn’t lead her to choose the
right they were her enemies. She also knew that the FSOY said that “Friends
will influence how you think and act, and even help determine the person you
will become.” Sheena couldn’t see how it really mattered because she wasn’t
doing anything wrong. Yet…###### Before long her friends had talked her into
sneaking out one night to meet up with some boys. ###### She seen nothing wrong
with this even though she was only now 14. She even got caught by her parents
to a few times and she was no longer allowed her cell phone. Then sheena met a guy
that was awesome! Oh was he cute! They started to like each other a lot and by
age 15 Sheena was “going out” with Mr. Gorgeous of the school! ######### Even
though Shenna knew what the churches standards for this were her friends and
the world told her otherwise. So one night that Sheena snuck out of the house
she met up with Mr. Gorgeous. He only had one thing on his mind…and that was to
make out!....##### Ugh. Sheena’s family just had a FHE on this very thing on
Monday night! The one sentence her mom read to the family that stood out to her
she was now being faced with!!! It says “Before marriage, do not participate in
passionate kissing, lie on top of another person, or touch the private, sacred
parts of another person’s body, with or without clothing and do not do anything
else that arouses sexual feelings. “ Sheena wanted to be popular. So she
decided it was ok to only do a few of those things with Mr. Gorgeous that
night. ####### Sheena did feel very guilty the first few times this happened
but then after a while it was no big deal to go make out with Mr.
Gorgeous.###### The only thing Mr. Gorgeous wanted to do for dates was watch
movies so they could make out all the time ###### Sheena would have rathered
the kind of dates the FSOY talked about
like “activities that are safe, positive, and inexpensive, and that will help
you get to know each other.” But… Sheena was enjoying her new found popularity
by being with Mr. Gorgeous. So she continued the relationship###### Before long
things progressively went further with Mr. Gorgeous and before Sheena knew it
she had had sex with Mr. Gorgeous.######## She had never meant for things to go
that far! Oh she felt terrible! Like a big black hole was sucking her in and
she had no clue how to get rid of the blackness that had taken over her life.
But she allowed it to happen again.####### Sheena felt like she had the worst
life possible! So she decided she would pray. She felt like she had nowhere
else to turn. So she said a small prayer and ask Heavenly Father to help her
through this and just as she prayed a song came to her mind called Godly
Sorrow. (PLAY GODLY SORROW SONG) How had she gotten so far away from that
temple marriage that she wanted so badly? Sheena now knew about Godly Sorrow
and started the steps she needed to take to receive true repentance… and get
back her dream of temple marriage!
Sisters,
please “decide now” and every day to pick up the virtue stick! Because if you
do it will lead you to that temple marriage we all want and desire! So is it worth
it to “Decide Now” to wait until marriage? Yes it is! (PLAY SONG WORTH WAITING
FOR) I know someone that would like to tell you her story and how she got
frustrated along the way but found out it was definitely worth waiting for…
This is my daughter Joslyn and her husband Izac Hillam. (PLAY SONG HAPPILIY
EVER AFTER) Joslyn truly let the Savior lead her to her happily ever after. Did
it only affect Joslyn to wait for a temple marriage? No! I want to compare
Sheena’s choices with Joslyn’s for a minute. As Sheena made her choices her
freedoms narrowed. She had her phone taken away, and her parents couldn’t trust her to drive
anywhere. Like an upside down funnel. But the choices Joslyn made had the
opposite effect. Her funnel is right side up and she now enjoys more freedoms
because of it! And isn’t her wedding dress just lovely? Especially compared to
this other dress that got chopped up with each bad choice. Which dress do you
want? The key to this is to “Decide Now”! You have to make a commitment to yourself
to do the things it says in the FSOY under sexual purity now! The last 2
sentences in the FSOY under sexual purity is this…”Make a personal commitment
to be sexually pure. By your words and actions, encourage others to do the
same. So turn to your friend and make that commitment now!!!!(give them 30
seconds or so) Now check up on each other from time to time! But most
importantly make a commitment to Heavenly Father and yourself to remain sexually
pure. There is so much information in the FSOY under sexual purity. Please
study it together as ward Young women and individually! “Decide Now” to be
virtuous! Like it says in Proverbs 31:10 Your price will be far above rubies!!
“Decide Now”!!!! Stephanie Munns will now sing live it. I would like you to pay
special attention to the lyrics. To all of the sentences that say I will. After
the song we will hear from President Follett. We are so glad he is here to
speak to us. Then we will sing the live it song all together. and then will say the closing prayer. (PLAY SONG
FOR STEPH TO SING TOO!) (President Follett) (Then sing song one more time)
