The Church announced that this year all women, from eight years of age and up, would meet together for both spring and fall Women’s meetings. I’m so glad of this change! This should have been done a long time ago, so I’m happy it’s finally happened.
So, why did they decide to include the eight year olds? Several years ago, eight year olds were very young and innocent. Now, our young girls are forced to grow up earlier and faster. It’s scary, sad, and sobering to realize how much they see at this early age. As their mothers, we want to be the ones to shape their lives.
I received a request for ideas on how to spend this first integrated evening together, in March. Many of you may already be coming up with your own ideas. Please share them with us here in my comments section.
There is a potential we should aim for with this new change. Our girls need to look forward to coming to Relief Society. We aren’t a bunch of boring old ladies, and we aren’t a bunch of ladies who simply party when we’re all together. We should want to wrap our arms around these beautiful young girls and guide them into the folds of our beloved Relief Society. Here are some ideas:
- Service Project — Gather well before the meeting and have one or two projects set up to work on. Relief Society is about service projects. Introduce our girls to what we do best.
- Dinner with questions – On the dinner table provide discussion questions about how Primary, Young Women’s, and Relief Society were organized. All organizations are very closely related. Young Women, Primary, Relief Society, Retrenchment.
- Dinner with centerpieces – Have mothers and daughters bring a favorite item, heirloom, family story, etc. They can take turns sharing these around the table.
- Instant Choir – Invite all mothers and daughters to dress in white tops and dark skirts. Before or after the meeting, sing several Primary Songs or hymns together as a choir of sisters. This is reminiscent of the Relief Society Singing Mothers.
Most of all just enjoy sharing this sacred sisterhood with your daughters.
I received this comment which made me come up with this post:
I’m looking for ideas for a meeting prior to or after the March General RS Broadcast. We want to do something different and special since it will be the first time girls 8 and up will be invited. Are you hearing any ideas or know where I might be able to look? I am new to my calling and your site. Thank you in advance for any suggestions…
Dianna
Wonderful ideas, Jan. We’re going to combine the RS Birthday celebration with the broadcast. We have one Primary girl and one Young Woman in our Branch and they love to come to RS.
We have 3 congregations (we live in Delaware) in our building and the 9 combined Presidents of the 3 Wards, have decided to encourage all girls/women to come to the Church (rather than stay home and watch it on TV or the internet). We are reminding our women that this is an amazing FIRST event for the women of the Church and we want to do something out of the ordinary. The broadcast starts at 8 pm for us so we are going to have desserts and a short program before the broadcast. We have not worked out the details of the brief program yet, but we are wanting it to be something to include all 3 age ranges. Would love any thoughts…. In Sacrament on the Sunday after, we have arranged it with the Bishop to have a meeting giving highlights of the broadcast (a girl/woman of each age will share her thoughts) and will have a combined girls/women choir perform a number.