A very powerful Christmas Enrichment program

This is one of those posts where you have to make a confession. So here is mine. (It's probably going to be a long one). Leslie was right. There you go, that's it. No really there is so much more. About two months ago our Enrichment counselor called me and said that she found a program that she wanted to have for our quarterly Christmas Enrichment night. I had just finished working on a project for the Halloween Party and was pooped. I didn't want to do another "program" and just wanted something simple but elegant with the least amount of work possible. I put her off an put her off until something had to be done. By this point I was willing to say, "Whatever you want!" I realize now that the attitude I had was most certainly Satan playing his part in influencing me to have hard feelings. Finally I threw myself into this Enrichment (in case you don't know, I'm the Enrichment Leader) and we started to get it planned. The night finally came. The program was set to have six women portraying the women at Christ's birth. There was the mother of Mary, the mother of Joseph, the mother of John the Baptist - Elizabeth, the wife of the Shepherd, the wife of the Inn Keeper and of course Mary the mother of Jesus. All these women just had a page to read. We asked them to read it a few times before and become familiar with their parts. Soon after I had given out parts, it became evident to me that we had been led most certainly by the spirit as to whom we were to give them to. Each of the sisters did such a great job in portraying these women. I was moved to tears more than once by the loving spirit I felt from these words. I know others in the room felt the same. That was only half the nights plans however. The other part of the night was a box with each sisters name on it. (If any of you saw Oprah's Christmas show this will sound familiar. That's where Leslie got the idea.) On the table were four different piles of slips of paper that could be written on. One said, "My Christmas wish for you is," another was blank and another said, "You are my sister because" The sisters were given the instructions to write a special message to the sisters at their table and then to the sisters in the room and then place it in their box. As I looked around all the sisters were busy at work. By the end of the night, I was tired and worn down. It had been a very long couple of days with more long days to come. Brent and Emma were waiting for me to finish cleaning up and then I thought about my box. I hadn't had a moment to myself where I could write any of the sisters a letter. I was saddened by that thought but I can't be too hard on myself because it wasn't like there really was a moment that could be taken. I had been busy keeping things moving swiftly. I tucked my box away because I wanted to open it in private. I went home and got Emma into bed. Brent said he needed to run a quick errand and so I thought it was the perfect time to open my box. I sat reading these kind, loving words from my sisters. Some were simple and some were anonymous but all of them were from the heart. Quickly I felt tears come to my eyes and as I continued to read I started to openly weep. These gentle loving words had pierced my heart. That's the way Brent found me, openly weeping. Thank you Leslie for everything. Thank you for not listening to my stubbornness and thank you for listening to the spirit when my heart was hard. One more big thank you is to my sisters in my ward. Sister is such a powerful word when used correctly. Many many times I have leaned on my sisters in my different wards but I wonder how many times I have really thought about the feelings associated with that. Thank you sisters for loving me unconditionally and thank you Father for helping me see that unconditional love.