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Based on Mary Ellen W. Smoot's talk (Developing Inner Strength) Spring 2002 Conference
(Preparation: Have someone read and know the story of Susanna below. Get a mirror (hand held if possible) Get a box ready by placing each family members name on strips and put into the box.
1. Song: "When We're Helping We're Happy".
2. Prayer: Assigned
3. Story: Assigned
"Susanna Stone Lloyd, who at the age of 26 left England in 1856 and traveled to Utah alone. The only member of her family to join the Church, Susanna was a member of the Willie Handcart Company. Like so many other pioneers, she endured life-threatening hunger, illness, and fatigue.
Upon arriving in the Salt Lake Valley, Susanna borrowed a mirror to make herself more presentable. Despite her best efforts, she recounts: "I shall never forget how I looked. Some of my old friends did not know me."Having sold her own mirror to an Indian for a piece of buffalo meat, she had not spent much time looking at herself. Now she did not recognize her own image. She was a different person, both inside and out. Over the course of rocky ridges and extreme hardship came a deep conviction. Her faith had been tried, and her conversion was concrete. She had been refined in ways that the very best mirror could not reflect. Susanna had prayed for strength and found it--deep within her soul. How can you and I become so converted to the truth, so full of faith, so dependent on God that we are able to meet trials and even be strengthened by them?
It does not take much living to find out that life almost never turns out the way you planned it. Adversity and affliction come to everyone. Do you know anyone who would not like to change something about themselves or their circumstances? And yet I am sure you know many who go forward with faith like Susanna. You are drawn to those people, inspired by them, and even strengthened by their examples. This story reminds us of who we really are and why we do the things we do. The more we live by its precepts, the more inner strength we will have. We will mirror our beliefs. Fasting, prayer, and scripture study impact our relationship with the Savior. I would like to highlight two more ways we can develop inner strength: Also like Susanna, when we are truly converted, our focus shifts from ourselves to others. We can find inner strength through service. Nothing would please the adversary more than for us to be distracted by selfish concerns and appetites. But we know better. Service will help us to stay on course.
4. Activity:
Take a mirror and pass it around. Have each member look into it. When all have done so ask them; "When you were focused on your own image, could you see anyone else?" Explain to them that when you are focused on yourself in life, you cannot see the needs of anyone else.
5. Activity:
Get your question box or a jar of some sort. Place each family members name on strips and place into the box. Each person in the family gets to take a name from the box. If there is a family member who is too small, have an adult take a name for that person and them help them that week. Then tell your family that the person they chose is the person they will focus service on for the whole week. Do a special thing for that person each day. Try to see the needs of that person. Help them wherever you can. Explain that this will help each of them to focus on someone besides themselves. Have each member be prepared to report on how doing service for others made them feel, in the next family home evening. Explain to them that when you do something for someone out of love, that love will grow inside of you. This can bring great joy to each person if we are truly doing a service unselfishly.
6. Activity:
Once again pass the mirror around. Now place the mirror so that you are focusing on someone else. Now you can see the face of someone else. You can see if they are happy or sad. You can see if they need help. If we all could be focusing on others instead of ourselves, the world would be a better place to live. This will make us a more unified family.
7. Read together D&C 38:27 explain to your families that there is another way we can develop inner strength. It is not only by striving for unity in our families, but also in our stakes, wards, and communities. The Lord Himself taught, "If ye are not one ye are not mine". So we can develop an attitude of seeing others needs outside of our home. Unity of purpose, thought, and feeling are exalting qualities. When we can put aside our differences and value each others' strengths, great things happen. The Prophet Joseph Smith admonished, "Don't be limited in your views with regard to your neighbor's virtue. . . . You must enlarge your souls towards each other." We can supporting each other, sustain our priesthood leaders, and be missionaries. As the kingdom of God rolls forth, we must unite our efforts in saving souls
(Next family home evening you can visit a rest home or a soup kitchen or ask the Relief Society President if there is someone who is in need in some way that can be helped by your family. Or have a family for the missionaries to come teach in your home. Kids love to be involved in projects like this. )
8. Read: Alma17:2 and Ether 12:27
9. Explain:
"No matter our circumstances, who of us can afford to waste our life in front of the mirrors of self-pity and discouragement? Yes, as the Apostle Paul admonished, we all need to "examine ourselves"
"From time to time. We all need to repent, to recognize weaknesses, and more fully come unto Christ. Like Susanna, we may have to sell our looking glass in order to cross the plains of pain, sorrow, and discouragement. But as we do, we will discover God-given strengths that we may not have otherwise known."
With all my heart, I know that the Lord can "make weak things become strong."
"I know this is His work and His kingdom. I know that each of us can mirror the Savior by the way we choose to live our lives. In the name of Jesus Christ, amen".
10. Song, "Have I Done Any Good In the World Today"
11. Prayer and Blessing on the refreshments.
12. Refreshments: Cookies and milk. (Have each person go and get a cookie for the name they chose.) Tell them that when you serve others you also are served. And that you always receive from this life what you give.