There is divine power in everyday discipleship. When you bring your real self and personality to Church assignments, you allow the Lord to refine your strengths to serve in ways no one else can.
As a young teenager, I learned this lesson on a personal level when I was called to serve as the class president of the 12- to 13-year-old young women in my ward. I was socially anxious and deeply reserved at the time, and I felt woefully inadequate to take on this new role.
I assumed that leaders needed to be “gregarious, alpha, and comfortable in the spotlight.”1 Since I didn’t fit within this imagined mold, I resolved to fake it until I made it. I braced myself to embody a new persona.
But everything changed as I worked with my Young Women leader, Sister Jean B. Bingham. She encouraged me to develop and nurture my existing strengths, such as thoughtfulness, empathy, and relating to others on a personal level.
Sister Bingham helped me to look out for members of our group who felt excluded and to focus on their needs above my own fears. She invited me to see the “one” as Christ did. Together, along with our class presidency, we planned activities to engage everyone and include them in something bigger than themselves—a sisterhood representing all kinds of personalities and interests, unified in Christ.
In Sister Bingham, I saw a quiet kind of confidence that I could emulate—a leadership that didn’t have to be loud to leave a lasting impact. Her humility pointed me to the Savior, and I felt His love in the way she taught through example each day. As Elder Quentin L. Cook once explained:
“[Humility] is having the quiet confidence that day by day and hour by hour we can rely on the Lord, serve Him, and achieve His purposes. … A favorite poem puts it this way: ‘The test of greatness is the way, One meets the eternal Everyday.’”
Sister Bingham’s service quite literally changed my life and how I see myself. And to this day, I still look up to her profound example of everyday discipleship.
Years later, Sister Bingham was called as a Primary general board member, a counselor in the Primary General Presidency, and the 17th Relief Society General President for the Church. After her release, she and her husband, Bruce, served in the Belgium Netherlands Mission as government relations representatives, assigned to the European Union and International Affairs Office of the Church in Brussels.
Sister Bingham says she believes that the Lord used her willingness and refined her strengths for each of these callings. Speaking about her service in Belgium, she shared:
“I’m really more of a retiring, private, reserved type of person, but I knew [that articulating my faith confidently] was part of my job. ... I don’t know why I was ever called, but the Lord trusted me to do that. And I knew that He would support me if I did my part.”
Insights from Sister Bingham and over 40 Latter-day Saint women from the 21st century are featured in a new collection called With Power and Authority: Teachings of Latter-day Saint Women. The quotes are organized into more than 50 doctrinal topics, allowing for quick reference during gospel study and while preparing a lesson or talk. Learn more about the book below.
Profound teachings from Latter-day Saint women
Editor’s note: This article first appeared in the May/June issue of LDS Living Magazine.
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Note
1. Susan Cain, “Excerpt from Quiet,” Penguin Random House Canada, 2012, accessed February 27, 2026, penguinrandomhouse.ca.
