Fire in the Belly

Pardon me for waxing a little spiritual today. I just returned home from our stake girls' camp in Heber. Unfortunately, I wasn't able to attend the entire time, for various reasons, but the time I was there, I am extremely grateful for. I drove six girls up on Wednesday morning and spent the night and returned home on Thursday around 1 p.m. and then went back up to camp with another leader and three girls for last night's activities, including the ward testimony meeting - always a camp highlight.

This was the first time I have attended camp with our ward and the stake did a fantastic job with everything, as did our ward leaders. The theme was "Steadfast and Immovable, Anchored in Christ" and each ward picked a symbol - ours was the North Star - a steadfast and immovable point in the galaxy that we can anchor to like we do to Christ.

During our testimony meeting, as we all gathered around the fire, I watched as it burned bigger and brighter and faded as wood was added or exhausted. I watched one of the laurels build the fire and she had a little spark going and decided to add some lighter fluid to kick it up in a hurry. I thought that is how our testimonies are when we come to camp - they may be a little spark, or even a strong fire, but as you add that lighter fluid, the fire blazes higher and brighter. As we attend and participate in the activities at camp, our testimonies are strengthened just as the lighter fluid strengthens the fire, and because there are so many amazing experiences jammed into a few days, the fire is really bright and hot.

As the night progressed, the fire began to fade and one of the beehives and the bishop added wood whenever needed. The new wood would again strengthen the fire and it would burn strong. We need to feed our testimonies the same way - as the faith-building experiences we have in our lives fade into memories, we need to continually feed the fire within that is our testimony.

I was impressed with the strength of our girls' testimonies and I hope they do the things they need to do to keep that fire burning strong. Sister Cook from the general young women's board spoke on Thursday night and challenged each girl to pray on their knees everyday, read the Book of Mormon five minutes a day, and to smile. How can we live with a smile on our face and not feel that warmth of the Spirit?

It was as always, an awesome experience to be around such great girls and leaders and I am glad I had the opportunity to participate in such a special testimony-building experience. Until next year...