I created this website 12 years ago. Wow! That’s a long time. Frankly, I’m kind of tired of writing and I often think of quitting. But something always happens causing me to rethink and keep writing. This time, it was Elder Maxwell’s talk.

From the beginning, my objective was to write about the history of the Relief Society. No one else was doing this at the time and for me the history was so fascinating, I thought all sisters would enjoy reading about the incredible workings of our organization.

Then, I began writing about the purposes of Relief Society. Clearly, our early sisters had a purpose, taught to them by Joseph Smith, himself. They set out to accomplish amazing things, and they succeeded. I hoped to instill, in my few readers, that same drive to make something of the Relief Societies they belonged to. We all need purpose in order to feel accomplishment, right?

While learning about the history, and understanding Relief Society’s purpose, I wrote quite a bit about Relief Society’s destiny. As daughters of God, we are all pretty amazing, capable of so much. And when we understand our history and are filled with purpose, our destiny is bound to be pretty terrific.

Clearly, I’ve been on the right track all these years, because the Brethren are urging and inviting women to recognize the blessings of being a Latter-day Saint woman.

Over the years, I have continued my sporadic, unprofessional writing. I haven’t moved into podcasts, or YouTube videos like others have. My readership is nothing to write home about. Sometimes, I get a little down because everyone else around me seems to be much more popular. Often, I find myself ready to quit. But then something always happens that causes some rethinking.

As I said, my readership doesn’t run into the stratosphere like some LDS bloggers. Sometimes that bothers me. But I have to remind myself, that isn’t why I write. When I started this website, I didn’t set out to be popular. I wanted to share the history of the Relief Society with my fellow sisters. As time has gone on, others have replaced me. For example, the church historians offer much more professional and complete information than I ever could. And for the past few years, I have focused more on what our responsibilities are, as the women of the church. Today, General Conference covers this information far more authoritatively. Sometimes, I just feel like I could stop writing and no one would notice.

And then, out of the blue, I’ll get a comment from someone expressing how thankful they are to have found me, or they read something I wrote that they needed to hear. The words are just enough to keep me going.

Recently, I’ve been having those feelings again, and guess what? I read Elder Maxwell’s talk, and have been revived once again.

In his talk, he speaks of the irony of Jesus Christ’s life. He is Lord and Creator of the earth, yet he was subject to evil and conspiring men. I read his words and was reminded of the irony in my own life.

“How different, too, from the ways in which some among us mistakenly see the size and response of their audiences as the sole verification of their worth. … Do you and I understand that the significance of our service does not depend upon its scale?”

Even though I have wanted to quit, apparently the Lord doesn’t want me to quit. I don’t know the reason, but I guess that’s the irony. My little voice must still matter to someone out there. Maybe my voice simply matters to me and my family because this is how I share my testimony and keep my testimony strong and bright.