One thing I really like about our church is how we learn to serve each other. Of course, service, like everything else, can be taken to extremes or used to bad purposes. But it's nice that we help each other out. I needed a car battery this week, and someone who manages a car parts store used his discount to help me buy one. During the couple of days I didn't drive the car, I carpooled with someone else in the ward who lives nearby. Serving helps you forget about yourself and feel happiness from doing good for others. For instance, when I help someone move, I may feel sore, I may get really tired, but I feel glad that I helped someone with an onerous task.
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If ye love wealth better than liberty, the tranquility of servitude than the animated contest of freedom, go from us in peace. May your chains sit lightly upon you, and may posterity forget that you were our countrymen! - Samuel Adams
A few months ago, we started doing EQ presidency visits to members who haven't attended church in a while. When I first started going, I went mostly out of a sense of duty, and I kinda resented being asked by the Bishop to spend more time away from my family. After three months now, I'm really liking it. We keep it brief--one hour every Tuesday night. I always come home with a good feeling, even when we've found nobody home.
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The ability to qualify for, receive, and act on personal revelation is the single most important skill that can be acquired in this life. - Julie Beck
The time-limit is a good idea. My husband used to do visits when he was in the presidency...took out a whole evening. (Says Euphrasie who is STILL a little resentful...although not so much now that I have Scout time usurpers to grumble about.)
Yeah. I'm one of those "do it 'til I get a testimony of it" types.
Based on past experience, I don't have the immediate conviction that every calling the Bishop extends to me, or everything he asks me to do, is the will of the Lord. I think they probably are, so I accept and go forward, sometimes reluctantly at first, and almost always gain a conviction after a while.
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The ability to qualify for, receive, and act on personal revelation is the single most important skill that can be acquired in this life. - Julie Beck
Our Bishop recently had an interesting idea. He asked at least 5 families to come to him and tell him that they were planning on helping another family where they saw a specific need.
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If ye love wealth better than liberty, the tranquility of servitude than the animated contest of freedom, go from us in peace. May your chains sit lightly upon you, and may posterity forget that you were our countrymen! - Samuel Adams
This weekend our EQ had the responsibility of setting up the chairs for the Stake Conference, along with two other wards. There were many able-bodied folk there. The Stake Center had just acquired 300 new chairs, in addition the most 'scratched' chairs were supposed to be set aside to be taken away on a trailer that was parked in the back parking lot.
I watched as perfectly good chairs were being put in the "scratched" pile, because of the smallest mark. I kept wondering why they didn't just setup all the chairs first, and then decide which chairs to remove. Clearly the communication of this massive endeavor was not well dispersed. Some of the group who felt they understood what the executive secretary had stated about taking out scratched chairs, would run around trying to tell the others who'd not heard not to setup scratched chairs. Then there were the hypersensitive chair scratch searchers who would take a chair out of into the hall for even the slightest scrape. Yet they were only replacing 300 chairs, not 1000.
Finally I grabbed six chairs that were put in the scraped pile and set them up in the middle of the stake center. When the executive secretary saw what i was doing he ran over and helped adjust the aisle so it was straight, leaving the (supposedly scratched) chairs where they were...Okay, so I don't recall, he might have taken one to the discard pile.
Then when it came time to load the trailer with 300 scratched chair, it didn't take long to see that they'd put WAY too many chairs in the scratched pile. So after loading about 200 chairs onto the back of the trailer, they realized they had to go through the scratched pile, and find the "worst-scratched" chairs. They started swapping in and out chairs.
I went home at this point; my advice having been thoroughly ignored.
I regret to report, I found myself thinking unkind thoughts during this opportunity for service. :)
--Ray
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I'm not slow; I'm special. (Don't take it personally, everyone finds me offensive. Yet somehow I manage to live with myself.)
Roper wrote: Yeah. I'm one of those "do it 'til I get a testimony of it" types.
Based on past experience, I don't have the immediate conviction that every calling the Bishop extends to me, or everything he asks me to do, is the will of the Lord. I think they probably are, so I accept and go forward, sometimes reluctantly at first, and almost always gain a conviction after a while.
I have to admit I often fall into this category. I just don't often get it the first time and end up slogging through it for a while until I get a testimony of it. I have found that my attitude makes a big difference in how long this takes. If I am at least open to it then I will get my answer sooner rather than later.
