Two stories of the Spirit

In Miranda's ward, we had a lesson in Relief Society on Elder Bednar's talk about showing love.  One sister spoke of a difficult upbringing.  She was later a Young Woman's leader doing a cooking activity at the church.  The bishop came in.  As some of his daughters were doing the cooking, he came up and gave each of them a big bear hug.  Then followed and hugged the rest of the young women.  This sister  loved seeing this kind of love shown but she felt such an ache in her heart.    She said, "I would have given anything to have had my father hug me like that."  She mourned the lack of love in her home.  A bit later the bishop came back.  He said, "I don't normally do this, but I feel impressed I should this time." And he gave the sister a big hug.  She said she felt like Heavenly Father was giving her that hug to show she was loved by him.

I thought what a remarkable thing the Holy Spirit is.  No person could have possibly know the feelings in this sister's heart.  No bishop would have casually hugged a married woman.  The spirit must have been strong for him to go against his natural inclinations and given this woman a hug.  God is real.  The spirit speaks to people.  It lifts and give hope.

The second story reflects a bit of remarkable parenting.  Sister Darracq shared this in Relief Society when we were talking about the Holy Spirit.  She said her boys and a friend wanted to go to an AC/DC concert.   She recalled the fun she'd had going to a concert when she was young, but wanted to be sure this was appropriate.  She said she'd check it out and let them know.  She asked for copies of the band's music and listened to it.  It wasn't bad.  As she was pondering on this, she came across a scripture that said the Holy Spirit would not go with you if you went into unholy places.  She went to the music store in town and asked the owner there about this concert.  It was to be held in a large stadium in Little Rock.  "What would it be like?" she asked.  "What kinds of people would attend."  The store owner said there would be sex, drugs, and immorality there.  It was likely to be rowdy and crude.   She went home and talked to her boys.

She said, "When you go to this concert, will the Holy Spirit be able to go into the concert with you?"
The boys said, "No.  The Holy Spirit would not go in there!"
She asked: "Do you want to go some place where you have to leave the Holy Spirit behind?"
End of conversation.  The boys decided they didn't want to go to a place like that.

I was impressed because she didn't give an automatic decision.  She spent a lot of time researching it.  And ultimately she framed the question so that the boys made the decision on their own.  I thought that was amazingly good parenting!