Katie got to give her very first talk in church on Sunday. She was asked to talk about courage and friendship. She spent a good amount of time during the week pondering that subject, looking for supporting quotes and scriptures, and planning her talk. I didn't help her all that much. The only thing I did for her is help her at first when she was a bit confused about how courage and friendship could go together as a subject for a talk. I just reminded her of the Dumbledore quote from the first Harry Potter book when he speaks about how Neville stood up to his friends when they were not following the rules.
That opened Katie's eyes to the possibilities, and she just ran with it. I was so impressed with the way that she prepared for this talk. She showed a maturity in her preparation that you don't often see in twelve year-old girls. Normally I make sure and check out the talks the kids have prepared before they get to church, just to make sure their doctrine is sound and their words flow logically, but I didn't look at Katie's until just a few minutes before Sacrament Meeting. What I found was a paper with a few notes prompting Katie what she wanted to say, but she hadn't written down her entire talk. She was going to go up, trust the preparation that she did, and follow the Spirit as she spoke. Wow! I didn't know how it would turn out, but Katie seemed confident, so I hoped for the best.
How did it go?
She was AMAZING. Absolutely amazing. She stood before our congregation and was poised and confident for the most part. I could see that she was a bit nervous, but she didn't let her nerves throw her off at all. She felt good about the things she had prepared, and she had no problem sharing them with us. As she stood and spoke she reminded me so much of Laney. Savannah said the same thing after the talk was over. It was a bit freaky how much like Laney Katie seemed. There was a point at the beginning of the talk when Katie was explaining how her understanding of the topic evolved. She told of how she didn't understand exactly what the bishop wanted her to speak about, and how she tried thinking of it several different ways without feeling good about the results. Then she said, "Finally I just raised the white flag and asked my mom." It was such an odd thing for a twelve year-old to say. At that point she sounded exactly like Laney would have sounded if she were giving that talk. I was super proud of her.
That night her beehive adviser posted a video of her on facebook. Katie was holding her adviser's daughter on her hip as she directed the young women in their opening song, and the little baby started directing with her. It was super cute, and I loved watching the joy and enthusiasm Katie showed as she directed the song. Here she is:
So there is a little love thrown out to my Katiebell today. She is a wonderful young woman. I can't wait to see what the future holds for her.
No comments:
Post a Comment