The Ten Virgins

I just finished my senior year and will soon be attending college in the fall. So this year was my first year not attending girl's camp.

And I miss it.

For those of you who don't know what girls camp is, it is a program developed by The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints for girls 12-18. The way its set up is you have level 1, level 2, level 3, level 4, YCL 1, and finally YCL 2. A ycl is a youth camp leader and they plan the camp under the advisement of leaders and stake members.

Our camp was Monday-Saturday for YCLs and Level 4s and Tuesday-Saturday for everyone else.
And one tradition for our camp is that they always did a whole camp spiritual activity.

Last year the YCLs acted out the parable of the ten virgins. YCL's were specifically chosen and sent this email.

"Dear Young Women,

 

We would like you to help with this years “Faith Walk”.  Last years was awesome as it came from your heart and each of those who listened felt the spirit.  This year we are portraying the parable of the 10 virgins.   There will be 10 stations where each of you will act the part of one of the 10 virgins.  At the end of the walk, it will be announced that the “Bridegroom cometh”.  Everyone (except the 5 foolish virgins) will go to the lodge and the door will be closed.  The 5 foolish virgins will then come and knock on the door but will be turned away.  We will have a speaker close with a short talk.

 

I have attached the characteristic of each virgin and what they will need.  Please review the list and email me your top 3 choices of which you would like to act out.  You will need to speak for 3 minutes about this virgin and what she is like.   We would like you to pray about this and you can use scriptures, stories, or personal experiences.

 

I love each of you; you are so special and are such great examples to the other young women!  I love to feel your spirit and see the light of Christ in your eyes.

 

Please get back to me as soon as possible so I can make the assignments"

 

And included in this email was a document enclosed with the "personalities" of the 10 virgins.

 

For the YCL’s,   The Ten Virgins

 

"1. The first virgin represents a Christ-like person. This is the person who is meek, humble, obedient, long-suffering, gracious, and just: one who has faith, is pure in heart, one who hungers and thirsts after righteousness, and is a peacemaker. This virgin prays and fasts, keeps the commandments and studies the scriptures to learn of Christ. You cannot be a Christ-like person unless you know Christ. ----- Her gifts are palm fronds – which are symbolic of Christ entering Jerusalem for the last time when those who recognized Him as the Messiah laid palm fronds at his feet. Another gift, olive branches, are symbolic of the gathering of Israel in the last days. Her final gift is seven white lilies, which represent the seven dispensations of time.

 

"2. The second virgin represents repentance and one who has accepted the atonement of Christ for her sins. She looks to Him with love and gratitude for being her own personal Savior. ----- Her gifts are a stalk of wheat and a vessel of water, which are representative of the sacrament. She is dressed in white linen, the material Christ was wrapped in when he was taken from the cross.

"3. The third virgin represents the ordinances necessary on this earth to enter the kingdom, such as: Baptism, Confirmation, Endowments, Temple Marriage, and Temple Work which includes genealogy, etc.----- Her gifts are two doves, which represent the Holy Ghost and the Holy Spirit of Promise. She is dressed in blue, trimmed with gold – blue and gold are the colors of the priesthood.     (I have two fake doves you can use)

"4. The fourth virgin represents truth, light and knowledge, and discovering, developing, and using talents for building up the kingdom. ----- Scrolls are her gift, which represent the knowledge, truth, and light she has gained, and the lyre is also her gift, representing all the talents she has developed, not just musical talents.

 

"5. The fifth virgin represents charity, the true love of Christ, and service. She has a serene smile. She represents the epitome of motherhood or fatherhood, of sweet, unseen service to her family and to others. Her gift is a basket of fruits. It represents two things: First, `By their fruits ye shall know them, and Second, The Word of Wisdom.

 

"6. The sixth virgin represents vanity and seeking after riches. She would be the one to whom wealth and possessions are most important. ----- Her gift is a golden vessel, filled with gold and precious things. Her dress is costly. Even the scarlet color of her dress, which is decorated with jewels and gold, is a sign of wealth. It is important to remember that he who loves the riches is evil, not the riches.

"7. The seventh virgin represents the sins and pleasures of the world. She is fun-loving and fun to be around. She doesn't' realize how the immodesty of her gown makes her appear or how if affects the emotions and minds of others. Her testimony is weak and she generally goes with the crowd because she isn't strong enough to stand on her own. She would live by the philosophy of `eat, drink, and be merry, for tomorrow we die.' ----- Her gift is a large vessel containing an alcoholic beverage, because drinking and sinning are alike in that they gradually dull the mind and senses, until one day, you wake up horrified at what you have done and became.

8. The eighth virgin represents addiction and excess. ----- Her gifts are a swine's head, which represents filthiness of body, mind, and spirit, and honeycomb, which represents the addicting vices which are too sweet for us to give up. These addictions are not just what we take into our body internally, such as alcohol, tobacco, drugs, sugar or excess eating, etc., but also addictions of the mind and soul, such as soap operas, unrestricted T.V., listening to the wrong kind of music, R-rated or filthy movies or books. Anything that would cause the body or mind to depend upon or desire them. She has a weak will and would delight in telling or hearing dirty jokes or stories, or in repeating gossip. She seems to be inviting: `Try it,... join me.... it's fun.'

"9. The ninth virgin represents those who delve into dark works and idol worshiping. These are those who dleve into the mysteries, the occult, secret combinations, and perhaps other works in secret, like pornography, child abuse, and perversions. ----- She has a band around her neck, which symbolizes these sins that, first, like threads and cords, become like bands and chains to drag us down to hell. The jewel on the forehead represents the mark of the beast. The gift she gives is an idol of a goat's head and represents apostasy or anything that is put before the Lord.

 

"10. The tenth virgin represents unrighteous power and ego. This is the one who is puffed up because she feels her calling is greater than someone else's. This is also the one who manipulates or rationalizes and would have one set of standards on Sunday and another in the business world. ----- She wears a crown and carries a scepter which are symbols of her power. She is jealous and envious of others, even her dress is green with envy. She has a partially hidden sword which represents gossip or cutting people down behind their back. Her gift is the crown and scepter she wears.... but will she give up her symbols of power even to the One to whom they belong?

Each girl was asked to choose her top three and then our stake leader gave us what virgin we were.

I was virgin 2. Each girl was supposed to have a speech prepared about 2-5 Minutes long.

 

This is what I had written:

 

 

Humpty Dumpty sat on a wall

Humpty Dumpty had a great fall

All the King’s horses and all the King’s men

Couldn’t put Humpty together again

But then, Humpty got up and looked good as new

His shell was all shiny and he didn’t use glue

He looked at the horses and all the King’s men

And said, “I don’t need you to put me together again!”

But then… he did realize that something was amiss

His outsides were fine, but his insides were all mixed

All scrambled, all churned, like an omelet he felt

So he began to plead to all the King’s help

But they all declined with their heads bowed down low,

“We haven’t what it takes to heal such a blow,

In fact we are each in the same state as you”

Said all the King’s men, and his horses cried, “Us too!”

“There is no man here that can fix this great sting,

But the man up the hill can, we call him our King,

So go up the hill now, He’s waiting for you

As he waited for us to heal up this few.”

“But there are some things of you he’ll require,

Your heart and your soul, and all your desires.

You see, we have learned this, so the past years we’ve been

All the King’s horses, and all the King’s men.

Jesus Christ truly knows us. And he did not take upon the sins of the world. The world is but a place we live in however he took on the sins of individual people. He took on individual sins. He asks for so little he doesn’t ask us to suffer and he doesn’t want us to feel pain. He wants us to repent, forgive and to learn.

But being a teenager we feel suffering, pain, and hurt and as teenager it is easy to feel alone.

Jesus knows exactly how we feel.

“My God, My God, Why hast thou forsaken me.”  Matt 27:46 Mark 15:34-35 Ps. 22:1

Jesus Christ felt alone and he felt my pain, and your pain, and our suffering. Some of us hold onto this pain because we think we deserve it or we don’t know how we could ever be forgiven.

We are given a truly beautiful gift, the atonement is what allows us to have grace and is the way to eternal life. If everyone truly knew what the atonement was no one would be unhappy.

We are able to be forgiven and our burdens to be lightened. We are able to be happy and to continue to live our lives without holding on to the pain or the hurt.

‘He cannot forget us; we are engraved upon the palms of his hands’

But we can choose to forget his sacrifice and continue on in misery or we can choose the atonement and be All the King’s horses, and all the King’s men.

 When we actually did it we each had a station around camp. We all had costumes on, our gift for the savior and a small oil lamp. And the girls went around to every station and heard every virgin speak. The hardest part was not for those righteous virgins but those who were the foolish ones. They were preaching a lifestyle they didn't believe in while dressed immodestly. They were telling the girls that clothes and riches were better than our savior, that you might as well party because you never know when your life is going to end, and one talked about being addicted to exercise and how being psychical beautiful is most important. While we were practicing with each other there were so many tears shed because how could they say these things to girls who trusted them? But that's when our stake leader stepped in and said that in order for this to work we had to play our part whether it was good or bad, to show what will happen to us in the second coming. The more we play our part the more the girls could see the difference between the wise and the foolish virgins. After the girls went to every station we heard "The Bridegroom cometh" and the wise virgins had their oil lamps lit while the rest of the campers started walking into the mess hall. While the girls were going in they heard the wise virgins tell the foolish to run and find oil for their lamps. But before they came back the doors were closed. And then we heard banging and screaming to let them in. By this point all the wise virgins are in the front of the mess hall with all our oil lamps lit and we are bawling.

At this point the banging stops and they stop screaming. Our stake leader comes forward introducing the wedding cake that was at the front of the mess hall, she then delivers a message about the parable and what it means and how we have to prepare now because we don't want to be the ones outside the door. And at the end of her talk each girl was given a small oil lamp like the ones each of the virgins had.

I still have my oil lamp and it sits on my shelf where I see it every day.  I'm so glad that we were able to do this. It was such a spiritual experience and also a wake up call for many of the girls. Afterwards we heard so many compliments about it and how this was a pivotal moment in their life.

I love girls camp and it was some of the best times of my life.

But for now I'm done but look for other girls camp posts later when I'm feeling sentimental.

Can you guess who is righteous and who is not?