A Brand New Year

Last night, we had an informal youth fireside at our YW president's home to kick off the church's youth program/celebration, "A Brand New Year". I'd heard that it leaned heavily to the cheesey side so I was quite anxious to see the program.

The program's focus was wrapping up last year's theme, "Be Steadfast & Immovable", while introducing the 2009 YM/YW theme: "Be Thou an Example of the Believers". As the program opened, hundreds of happy youth ran down the rows of the conference center towards the stage; dressed in colorful button-down shirts, they were clapping, singing & cheering. In hindsight, I must admit that I was more vocally critical than I should have been - especially as a leader; many of our youth loved it, despite my side comments.

When I came home, I continued to think about the production and my critique started to change. So many people put in long hours and dedicated months to the production of this musical celebration; the composers, scriptwriters, choreographers, cameramen, stage crew... not to mention the countless performers. As I sat, watching these youth perform, it reminded me of experiences I had as a youth. Because my mom was the stake music chairman, I participate in roadshows and "acted" & sang in musical-dramatic productions. I loved the camaraderie that came from meeting & working with a wide group of kids and it was fun to perform for a captive audience. Typically, our gospel messages were cloaked by silly songs and outrageous costumes, but we thoroughly enjoyed ourselves.

While the production seemed over the top for me, the message delivered through song and testimony was powerful. I especially appreciated the testimonies that were presented via video; those youth shared personal conversion stories & experiences which strengthened their testimony of the gospel, the scriptures and Jesus Christ. "Be Thou An Example" is a good reminder to all of us - and in my opinion, was an excellent theme choice for a year that will undoubtedly be more challenging for our youth than we could imagine.

My hope is that our youth will feel the underlying message that their Heavenly Father loves them, their church leaders love them and that the gospel blesses their lives in innumerable ways, which will ultimately bring them the greatest joy in this life.