"You Do Not Define ME!"

Today on Facebook I saw this quote from Elder Richard G. Scott (October 2003 General Conference): With all my capacity I encourage you to discover who you really are. I invite you to look beyond the daily routine of life. I urge you to discern through the Spirit your divinely given capacities. I exhort you to prayerfully make worthy choices that will lead you to realize your full potential. You are of a singular generation with exceptional potential. No wonder Satan wants to cripple that potential by tempting you to violate the laws of God. He knows that he has no power over a righteous individual. Yet he is a master at making sin appealing to the undecided. Remain worthy. When you really understand who you are, it is not difficult to resist Satan’s temptations. Then he can’t thwart the development of your true potential. Oh my Little Sister's, please understand that "Knowing Who You Are" is something that you must find out regularly because it will be tested daily! I have only shared this story with a few in my life, but if I am truly going to serve my "Little Sisters" I have to lay everything out there. When I was 13 years old, I was treated horribly by the Young Women in my ward. Girls acted like friends to my face, and in the same breath talked badly about me behind my back. This was a new Ward for me, and I could not understand what exactly I had done so wrong to deserve being treated in such a way. This all came to an ugly head one summer, my FIRST summer at Girls Camp. We were in the process of switching Wards during my first year at Camp, so this event occurred during what was technically my Second Year, passing off two years of requirements, AND staying with the Third Years because there were no Second Years at Camp that year. (Are you still with me on this? lol) I stayed in a tent with girls I was not particularly friends with, but they were the only ones from my Ward that I knew. One day, I tried to stay out of their way, but at night I would listen to them talk and hang out with them (where else was I going to go?). One day I came back to our tent where someone had taken a maxi-pad and shredded it all over my sleeping bag. When I realized what it was and who had probably done it I was totally embarassed and humiliated. Having no friends in the camp, and not being a tattle-tale, I retreated within myself and went with hands shaking to the campfire and just sat and stared while I figured out how I should feel about this and then, what was I going to do? I couldn't very well go back in that tent again. And what on earth had I ever done to those girls to deserve such treatment?? The answer was simple, NOTHING. When I went to Church Sunday and those girls still acted as if nothing had happend. They giggled together, walked around with their noses in the air, as if they had not just spent the last week trying to destoy me. What they did not realize was that this one event defined me. For the rest of my life I have remember that week. Why? It was then that I was tried. I was tested, and I had discovered WHO I was and WHAT I was made of, and that has made ALL the difference in who I am today. I walked into that church building knowing that THEY DID NOT BREAK ME and that I was determined to be there because it was what I wanted, and I knew that I was stronger because of them. That I CHOSE not to let them take my testimony away from me. It was not theirs to take! From that moment on, things changed in my life. I became a leader in our Young Women's organization (one that continued to grow). I never actually held a "leadership position" but from what I understand, I was loved because I made others feel loved. I went out of my way to make certain that not a single one of those girls ever felt the way that I did during my first months in that new Ward. If I thought for a second that I had hurt a single one of those young ladies, I would repent of it (yes, 20+ years later). Even today, my favorite calling next to Seminary Teacher that I have had was as the Ward Girl's Camp Director. Where are those girl's from so long ago? Unfortunately only one or two are still active members of the Church. The others...still fence sitting. It is so sad to me. So my Little Sisters...determine WHO YOU ARE right now, today! Pray to know your purposes, to hold true to the Lord. Don't walk the fence...decide and stay true to that. I clung to the Lord through that week of H#@*. I have never been treated so badly in my life than I was that week...and I will forever be grateful that I walked through it to know that other's do not define me. Have a great day Sister's! xox Dani