A Woman Who Has Nurtured My Faith

In church this past Sunday, I taught the Relief Society lesson.  It was about being a daughter of God and the marvelous the power of women of faith.  I had the ladies bring a picture or trinket or anything to share about a woman that has nurtured their faith, then I gave them time during class to share with their neighbor about the woman they chose.  We ran low on time, so I never got to share about the woman I decided to speak on, so I  thought I'd share here.

Her name is Sister Leslie Taylor.  She was my neighbor growing up.  She was a tall, thin woman with big eyes and a pretty smile.  She taught my young women's class when I was a teenager.  Every lesson, she brought her scriptures and a picture of Jesus (the same picture every week) which she hung up on the strip above the chalkboard.  She always bore her testimony at the end of every lesson and she often would hold up her scriptures which were well worn, the pages having been searched many times, and tell us how much she loved the scriptures and how true they were.  She told us to read them every day.  Her testimony alone spoke volumes about how much the scriptures meant to her and how they helped her in her life.  She also held up the For The Strength of Youth pamphlet and told us that she read a section of it every night.  She told us we should do the same.  I decided I would try to do that.  I would read a section of the pamphlet every night and a few verses of scripture every night.  This I did for years.


Soon, the words from that pamphlet I could quote.  Because I put into practice the things she taught me, I felt the added strength of the Lord in my life.  I also avoided a lot of the drama and messes that I saw my friends go through.  That's not to say that I didn't have drama or messes either, they certainly came from immature choices I made, but I knew where to turn when I messed up or when I needed help or when my friends needed advice.  My faith grew during my teenage years because I fed that fire nightly (even if it was only a few verses, many which I didn't understand, but the habit kept the flame of faith alive).