This is one of those lessons that, as a young woman, you look forward to every year. One thing that I didn't do with this lesson that my YW leaders seemed to always have us do is make a list of all the qualities that you want in a husband. I did that many times as a young woman, and while I still have some of those lists, my husband does not fill all the requirements, BUT he does have many other qualities that weren't listed. So... I modified that general idea by telling the girls that they should base their lists on the scriptures. I do have a list in the back of my scriptures entitled "The Man I Want to Marry." Under this title are a list of scriptures which include good qualities for a husband and father. This is a much more realistic and righteous list than those that I made when I was younger. And after a little while, I realized that many of these qualities I was listing for my husband were things that I needed to work on. So, I started another list entitled "The Woman I Want to Be." This exercise was the most fulfilling of it's kind that I had ever done, so I made bookmarks for the girls with these titles on either side and a series of lines for them to fill in different scriptures as they study their scriptures through the years. I told them to make a scriptural list of qualities they wanted in a husband. But told them that they needed to be a certain type of girl so that they would be able to attract that type of boy. I solidified that with an experience of my own:
While my husband was on his mission (obviously this was before we were married) I wrote to him. Now, you need to understand that we did not date before his mission, I was writing to him as friends. In one of my letters, I asked him was made him decide to serve a mission. He was the only member of the Church in his family and didn't have great support for his mission (if any at all). He told me a few different reasons and finished with this: "And besides, what Charmaine [insert my maiden name] would marry a boy who didn't serve a mission?" I was of course honored and encouraged my girls to also be the type of girl who would encourage others (especially their future dates/husband) to be the very best that they could.
Overall, the lesson turned out great!
Here are the sources for the bookmark and a picture of the finished product:
