Acting like Brothers and Sisters

We usually arrive quite early to church on Sunday. Parking is a premium so we get their early to get a good spot. So, I get to watch 95% of the ward come into the chapel each week. I LOVE the interaction that happens during that time and even during Sacrament meeting.

We are a noisy ward - I know our Stake President is disappointed at the level of noise before Sacrament meeting and even during it. We need to work on speaking softly to each other. But, what I also see is people lovingly greeting one another each week.

Then, when the meeting starts, I see lots of baby passing, smiling, silly faces, children going to sit with "surrogate grandparents" and people sliding forward a bench or two to watch little children when a mother has to take a baby out. It just happens every week and I love it. It shows that ward members truly care for each other.

I am so grateful for the good people in our ward. I believe that through service given to each other, we grow closer together. Our reward for that is love and charity towards one another which increases the likelihood that we will do our visiting and home teaching which then adds an increase of charity and love towards those we serve.

This is what happens...

When you ask 9 and 11 year old boys to set up the Gingerbread Village for you. Instead of happy gingerbread families, you get Storm Troopers and Lego Warriors battling it out. Peace on Earth...

The Mantle of Leadership

There was a change in the Bishopric the other day. I chuckled because they released everyone BUT Mark. I leaned forward to the Primary President sitting front of me and whispered, "They forgot a name!"

Then the second counselor became the first counselor and a new second counselor was called.

I don't know this man well and neither does Mark. But he was strongly impressed that he should be called into the Bishopric as his first counselor had served for a long time (from the previous Bishopric) and was needed in another Priesthood leadership position.

It's always amazing to me that "who the Lord calleth, he qualifies". The new counselor is probably 35 and, up until last Sunday, was an Elder. When they had him come to the stand to sit, he looked a bit stunned throughout the rest of the meeting.

But, by the time I went to fetch my kids from the clerk's office after church (they love to bug the ward financial clerk - the father of 5 mostly grown boys himself), there was a completely different demeanor to this man. It's like he had blossomed.

The poor man got thrown right into the middle of tithing settlement. They hardly have time to train him until next week. He showed up to the church with Mark on Thursday night for Tithing Settlement and again, I noticed what a change there was about him. I wonder if his family has felt and noticed it, too?

It's hard to describe what happens when your husband is serving in the Bishopric and especially as Bishop. There's just something different. I whine and complain when Mark has to travel for business or go to something in the evening for business. But, if he's gone for his calling, it's like I can't even THINK of whining or complaining. There's like a weird absence of the desire to do that.

I remember the day Mark was released the first time he served as a Bishop. We came home from church after and there was just this weird void like we'd left something important at church. Neither of us could describe it exactly - it was just very noticeable that something was gone.

I hope the new counselor's family feels the blessings of service that we have. I know it will be a challenge for them. His wife is newly pregnant with their third child and sicker than sick. I was actually surprised she was at church last Sunday when he was called and I felt really bad for her when he left to sit on the stand and there she sat feeling miserable with two little kids.

"Change" Someone's Christmas!

”I am afraid the only safe rule is to give more than we can spare…If our charities do not at all pinch or hamper us,… they are too small. There ought to be things we should like to do and cannot do because our charitable expenditures excludes them.”

C.S. Lewis in Mere Christianity

Tonight was our Third Annual "Change" Someone's Christmas Family Home Evening activity. We did pretty bad on the change saving this year and only ended up with $67. But, we doubled it AND had a 10% off the total purchase coupon so, add to that some great sales and we got a LOT.

It's amazing how God puts people in your way to help you at times. The coupon at Fred Meyer's LOOKED like it gave you 10% off all toys and sporting goods, but when we went to check out, the guy said there was all sorts of confusing fine print and it didn't apply to sale prices but since nearly everything was on sale, he was rebelling against the system and just giving everyone 10% off anyway. WOW! I thanked him and told him the cart full of toys was all going to charity so his generosity was very kind. If we had gone to any other check-out line, we probably wouldn't have gotten the same treatment.

The best part about this is the impact it has on our boys. They understand that we are not shopping for them so there is no "wishful window shopping" allowed. We're all about "business". They also look for the best sale prices to get the most bang for our buck so they learn about buying on sale to make your dollars go farther. They are also forced to buy GIRL toys but they make sure that they make appropriate purchases - no half-naked Bratz dolls from us!

This year we are adding a new component. We are having an Open House this weekend - it's an open house in the true sense of the word - it will be outside from the garage. We have asked our friends and neighbors to bring toys to share with those in need. We will have a couple of fire pits going with fires and hot cocoa and cookies in our decorated and heated garage. We'll add the toys from that to our own pile and then drop them off early next week for the Christmas House charity.

We had a talk tonight about "spreading the wealth around". We taught our boys that paying more taxes to fund endless social programs will NEVER feel good, go as far or be as useful as what we did tonight - making the choice to share our blessings with those less fortunate. If more people in the world opened their hearts and their change jars, the world would be a better place!