The Joy of Being Amy

Yesterday Tara gave the lesson in her Laurel class, and she asked me to speak and tell about the Joy of Being a Woman. I spoke for 10 minutes. I said I would speak on the Joy of Being Amy, because I have had lots of joy in my life, and how do I know how much of it is because of being a woman, and how much of it is just because I have the personality I have.

I loved to sew from the time I was 12 years old, and I remember it was difficult when I was a young mother, because I felt like I had to get everything done before I could have fun and sew. Therefore, days went by without having any fun. I went to my brother Larry's graduation from BYU, and they told about the apostle Boyd K. Packer's hobby of carving beautiful bird statues. I realized then that even an apostle is allowed to find joy in an artistic hobby and I didn't have to feel guilty.

So from then on, I have tried to give myself a little "happy time" every day or at least several times a week. I have a testimony that the Lord wants us to have joy in life. I told the girls that they all need to find something that brings them joy and make time to fit it into their lives.

I have a testimony that the Lord will help us in our quest for joy. I was trying to make a 50th anniversary quilt for Wayne's parents in 1998 with family pictures on it. The photo transfers were not working, and time was running out to send the quilt to them by their anniversary. I prayed about the problem, and as clear as a newspaper headline, the answer appeared written in my brain "USE SATIN".

I was shocked and wondered how in the world would God know how to use that particular brand of photo transfer paper. I found satin, and ironed the photo on, and it peeled off perfectly. Every photo I did on satin is beautiful, and all the ones I had done using cotton look faded and rough, and in fact half of them didn't even transfer. So God knew it would work to use satin.

I never could have predicted that God would help me on something that probably wasn't important to Him, but He knew it was important to me.