Signifigant Sunday: Bri The Charity Case

I have two photographs in my office...the rest are paintings or prints. One is of my husband and I in 2007 and I'm like 30 lb's smaller. I believe it's the first time he outweighed me. Anyways the other is the one you see to the left. It's of me and 5 other women who went away for a conference one year ago this April.  It's also one of the most significant experiences of my life. Therefore as the one year anniversary looms it needed to go up on Significant Sunday.






Boy what a difference a year can make! In this picture everything I am wearing was either bought for me by someone or was a hand me down. We were so broke that I didn't even have money to buy clothes at the thrift store. My family and I had just moved into a small two bedroom apartment, our oldest son had just got sent away for personal problems, my husband didn't have a steady job and life was pretty bleak. Although I put on a brave face, well more like a joking facade, I spent a lot of time on my knees. So how did I afford to go on a trip to a conference in another state? This is where the charity case part comes up.

I'm approached by two of the women who say do you want to go to The BYU Women's Conference in Provo UT? ( yeah I know I thought BYU was in SLC too) I was elated. It was one of the things I had hoped I could one day do now that I lived closer in ID. Alas I told her I had no money to attend. Her response was there's been a scholarship awarded and your lodging, travel and ticket expenses have been paid.

So me and 5 dear women loaded up in a white Toyata Sienna and headed to Utah. Each of our situations were very different. Economic, financial, social and even familial were all very different. The binding fiber that grounded each of us was a desire to please God, a love for one another and an anthem learned within the doors of many a Relief Society meeting that "Charity Never Faileth."



Going to that conference was like a healing balm to a decaying soul. I'll forever be thankful to those women and that week that taught me to be a Lioness at the Gate. 

Bri