Two weeks ago we arrived for church, found a place to sit and were waiting for the meeting to start. Maddie was calming looking over the program when she handed it to me and showed me that my name was listed for one of the talks. I quietly went to the front and told the bishopric that was the first I knew about giving a talk. I told them I could share my testimony, but it would not be anything prepared. They were amazed that was the first I knew about it and told me that of, course, I didn't need to give a talk. The counselor said the bishop would just have to fill in. So I sat down with the family and looked at the topic, Forgiveness. I had just taught a lesson in Relief Society a few weeks earlier on forgiveness. I looked through my notebook to see if I had any notes left there that I didn't use in the lesson. I found a whole entire article from President Hinckley with all my notes and ideas that I had not used.
So I went back up to the front again and told the bishopric that I could share some thoughts on forgiveness. The bishop was rather pleased and told me to take what time I could and then he would fill in the rest.
During the opening, welcome, and the sacrament, I looked over the article and made mental notes. ( I didn't even have a pencil with me.) After the sacrament, the counselor announced that I had had a whole 15 minutes to prepare the talk so anyone who did not pay attention and look interested would be called to fill in the extra time. All I can say is thank goodness for Ensign articles that are well layed out. I just touched on the main points and used the scriptures that were included and read some of the quotes. How can you go wrong when you use President Hinckly as a guide.
That was probably the least stressful (in amount of time) talk I have ever given. But I wondered, what if we had been late or even right on time. Imagine the stress and confusion that would bring.
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