In the Women’s Exponent, they’ve recorded many of the minutes of various Relief Society and Retrenchment meetings.  Typically, they will record who spoke at the meeting and how many were in attendance.  I finally found one where they tell us what was actually discussed!  Now we can do a comparison.

“The Lord poured His Spirit on [the speakers] in such abundance that they fed our hungry souls with the food they most needed.  Their texts were:  Education, watch-care of our girls, plural marriage, care of the sick, word of wisdom, womanly dignity, the importance of availing ourselves of the right of the ballot, folly and extravagance of the fashions of the day.  Showing to us that the mission of the Relief Society is not only to relieve the poor, but to introduce and cultivate everything that tends to the exaltation of woman and the saving of souls.  Seri-culture, straw-braiding, and all kinds of home industries were highly recommended.”

I think these same topics are equally important in our day and should be carefully incorporated into our Relief Society Activities:

Education:  We should all be concerned about our education.  It’s important to work towards a diploma.  We should have several skills under our belts, to be used at a moment’s notice in case of need.  We should have an attitude of continuous learning.
Watch-care of our girls:  An absolute necessity in our world.  Mothers should act like mothers.  Activities among the older women should include the younger girls, as often as possible, in order to train them better.  Standards and expectations should be raised, not lowered.
Plural Marriage:  Maybe not applicable, but we certainly need to take care of our men and strengthen our marriages.
Care of the Sick:  We may feel pretty good about our abilities in this area, but I think we tend to be selective and a little judgmental on who exactly deserves care.  In our day, sick covers a wide variety: physical sickness, mental sickness, emotional sickness, spiritual sickness, etc.
Word of Wisdom:  Let’s talk about eating and exercising healthily, shall we?
Womanly Dignity:  Women of our day struggle to recognize their value and place in our world.  We are Women of God and we need to remember that every single day no matter what our life is.
The Right of the Ballot:  There are many women in the world who CAN vote, but don’t.  There are still a lot of women in this world who have little or no rights at all.  Righteous women need to raise their voice in a world that would manipulate, change, and suck power from our women, thus our families.
Folly and Extravagance of Fashions:  Modesty is an ongoing, serious problem.  Living beyond our means is also a serious problem.  Pride has been known to be the downfall of nations.

Home Industry was important to the early pioneers, because they couldn’t just run out to the store or order on-line anything they wanted.  They learned to make many things from scratch.  Our reason for home industry may be to cut costs, supply our family income, pay down debt, and have the ability to stay home with children.

There is much work a sister in the Relief Society can do to be the woman she can be.  We can set aside our selfish desires to do the work of the Lord.  We can re-prioritize our focus.  We can redirect our path.  Our Relief Societies can help us re-prioritize, focus, and redirect our personal lives by organizing our activities and helping us accomplish these important tasks at hand.