Thursday Thirteen: Talk on Service

Today is so busy...so I'm not doing a list, But I've been wanting to post this excerpt from a talk I gave in church a while ago. I need this reminder to serve.

Moving to Utah was the right thing for our family to do. I felt that as we prayed. It was hard though. We had two wonderful little children and I was 8 months pregnant with our third. We had to sell our cute little home and say good-bye to friends and family and live on a much tighter budget. Even though I knew that coming to Utah was the right thing to do, I was nursing a little self pity. I had been the Primary President in our Tacoma Ward for four years and was sort-of looking forward to a “break”. I sensed, however that I was really going to need Heavenly Father’s help to get through the next few years and so fervently prayed for it. Understand, I had faith that he would answer my prayer and this is how I wanted him to answer it: “I go to the mail box and find a letter informing me that I had won the publisher’s clearing house thing.” or maybe this, “My mom calls and says that she is going to come and stay with me for the next 3 years.” and if those were to much to ask then maybe this, “BYU recognizes my husbands incredible talent and ability and decides to let him graduate 2 years early.”

But you know, our loving father in heaven who desires most for our ETERNAL happiness knew much better. 3 or 4 weeks after I had Claire I was called to be the Visiting Teaching coordinator. And what I blessing it was!! I got to know so many of the sisters in the ward in a very short time and it really helped me to feel at home in a very new place. PLUS it kept me busy enough that I felt useful and that increased my self worth.

A few months after that calling I was called to be the Relief Society President-- with 3 little kids and husband working and going to school full time and with barely enough means to support our little family. Was this the answer to my prayer?! Was this how the Lord was going to help me through this challenging time in my life?! Brothers and sisters...it was the best thing. I testify that the Lord knows us! I was talking to someone the other day and she mentioned that maybe I probably feel comfortable in a leadership calling. I was shocked that someone would think this! This is not true!!! But the miracle of the 5 loaves and 3 fishes kept coming into my mind. What we have is enough. The Lord will increase it if we are willing. I really don’t have time to tell you all of the ways that calling has blessed my life in the last 2 years. I saw so many quiet acts of kindness. I have been forever touched by testimonies. Our children have been blessed with wonderful primary teachers and leaders who faithfully serve. For this I am very grateful. I have been able to witness miracles, to cry with my dear sister tears of happiness and sorrow. To see some struggle and then succeed and to feel a measure of the joy that comes with that. Through all this our family has been healthy and safe. I gave birth to my 4th little one who was born healthy despite tests that told she might not have been. Despite meetings and being called away from home, our family stayed close. We’ve always had enough food...even enough to share. One Sunday, we were feeling particularly stressed. It had been a busy week and I hadn’t been able to go to the store to do shopping and I was feeling like my spiritual sponge was dry. I remember praying for help saying, “Heavenly father, I want to do what you have asked me to do but I need help.” We went to church and I felt the spirit so strongly and thanked Heavenly Father for answering my prayer so quickly. I remember being emotional about it. AND THEN we came home from church and there on our door step was a wonderful meal with a very nice note that someone had left anonymously. I knelt down immediately and thanked heavenly father and was SO overcome with feeling and I KNEW that he was taking care of us. That person who performed that very kind act of service may never know just how much it effected me and my family that day. But I know the Lord will bless them for it. And I will try to follow their example. Yes, the Lord knows us and hears and answers our prayers. Maybe not in the way WE think is best for us but in the way that will lead us to eternal happiness.
Brothers and sisters, we can work a little more to increase our faith. We can pray fervently and with faith to know who we can serve. We don’t need to be Relief Society president or Elder’s quorum president. I know a young sister who’s husband had a debilitating illness and was confined to a wheelchair. She became the sole breadwinner and was mother of 2 children and caregiver to her husband. Yet she was cheerful and upbeat. I marveled at her strength and wondered how she sustained it. Then one day I got a call from her. She said,” Sonja, can I come and mop your floor.”
I was so surprised! I told her that I should come and mop HER floor and she said "No, I need to do some service." That was her secret. When she started feeling low she went out to find someone to serve. How wonderful!!! I was so moved by her example.

President Kimball said,”IF we focus on simple principles and simple acts of service, we will see that organizational lines soon lose some of their significance. Too often in the past, organizational lines in the Church have become walls that have kept us from reaching out to individuals as completely as we should. We will also find as we become less concerned with getting organizational or individual credit that we will become more concerned with serving the one whom we are charged to reach. We will also find ourselves becoming less concerned with our organizational identity and more concerned with our true and ultimate identity as a son or daughter of our Father in heaven and helping others to achieve the same sense of belonging."

Matthew 10:39 -40 He that findeth his life shall lose it: and he that loseth his life for my sake shall find it. He that receiveth you receiveth me, and he that receiveth me receiveth him that sent me