I own a business that is all about creativity! I love this inspirational video based on a talk President Uchtdorf gave at the General Relief Society Broadcast last Fall. CREATE something great this week!
Thursday, April 30, 2009
Sunday, April 26, 2009
Home and Visiting Teaching
I need to develop a list - 101 Uses for Visiting Teachers or something like that. Okay, I probably couldn't come up with 101 uses, but there are quite a few.
Visiting teaching is so much more than visiting or receiving a visit once a month. It's, as the LDS.org Relief Society website says, "watchcare" over those we are assigned to.
How many of us think to turn to our visiting teachers FIRST when we need something? Need some babysitting while you go to a doctor appointment? Call your visiting teachers! Do you need to borrow a cup of sugar? Call your visiting teachers! Need a ride to the temple? Call your visiting teachers!
And, as visiting teachers assigned to care for those we visit, we should gladly give the service. If we are unable to ourselves, we should be wiling to help her find someone who CAN help. Maybe you can't babysit at that time but know someone who will be able to. Don't just say, "No, I can't." Say, "let me give you some ideas on who might be able to." It's essentially the same as providing good customer service. Only, the master we are serving is not a retailer, but the Lord. We should have a deep desire to represent Him well.
As the Bishop's house, we sometimes get phone calls from ward members with requests that really could be handled by home and visiting teachers. Most of the time, they didn't even think to call them. We have come to the conclusion that it's because many people either don't know who they are or don't want to "bother" them. Well, you should be no bother to them and they have more stewardship over your care than the Bishop does.
Don't know who your home or visiting teachers are? Ask! Ask the Elders Quorum President or High Priest Group Leader or Relief Society President. Don't see them? Invite them over. Seriously! Catch them at church and say, "We're free tonight. Would you like to come over and do your home teaching?" Mark has done that many times. We often promise them some of his famous chocolate chip cookies if they come. Sometimes the reason people don't come is that they haven't come in SO LONG that they are embarrassed about it now. You can help them get back in the swing of things by inviting them over. If they don't come that month, do it again. You should not be ashamed in asking them to perform their priesthood duty.
I really, truly believe that if members of the church did their home and visiting teaching visits every month and then took it a step farther and truly ministered and watched over those they visited, that people and wards would be transformed into Zion. Love for one another would dramatically increase and gossip and back-biting would dramatically decrease.
Visiting those we are assigned to is really a very simple thing to do. Let's all shoot for 100% this and every month from now on. Then let us learn to truly love and care for those we visit by looking for opportunities to serve them - even if it's not convenient or sometimes even hard.
Visiting teaching is so much more than visiting or receiving a visit once a month. It's, as the LDS.org Relief Society website says, "watchcare" over those we are assigned to.
How many of us think to turn to our visiting teachers FIRST when we need something? Need some babysitting while you go to a doctor appointment? Call your visiting teachers! Do you need to borrow a cup of sugar? Call your visiting teachers! Need a ride to the temple? Call your visiting teachers!
And, as visiting teachers assigned to care for those we visit, we should gladly give the service. If we are unable to ourselves, we should be wiling to help her find someone who CAN help. Maybe you can't babysit at that time but know someone who will be able to. Don't just say, "No, I can't." Say, "let me give you some ideas on who might be able to." It's essentially the same as providing good customer service. Only, the master we are serving is not a retailer, but the Lord. We should have a deep desire to represent Him well.
As the Bishop's house, we sometimes get phone calls from ward members with requests that really could be handled by home and visiting teachers. Most of the time, they didn't even think to call them. We have come to the conclusion that it's because many people either don't know who they are or don't want to "bother" them. Well, you should be no bother to them and they have more stewardship over your care than the Bishop does.
Don't know who your home or visiting teachers are? Ask! Ask the Elders Quorum President or High Priest Group Leader or Relief Society President. Don't see them? Invite them over. Seriously! Catch them at church and say, "We're free tonight. Would you like to come over and do your home teaching?" Mark has done that many times. We often promise them some of his famous chocolate chip cookies if they come. Sometimes the reason people don't come is that they haven't come in SO LONG that they are embarrassed about it now. You can help them get back in the swing of things by inviting them over. If they don't come that month, do it again. You should not be ashamed in asking them to perform their priesthood duty.
I really, truly believe that if members of the church did their home and visiting teaching visits every month and then took it a step farther and truly ministered and watched over those they visited, that people and wards would be transformed into Zion. Love for one another would dramatically increase and gossip and back-biting would dramatically decrease.
Visiting those we are assigned to is really a very simple thing to do. Let's all shoot for 100% this and every month from now on. Then let us learn to truly love and care for those we visit by looking for opportunities to serve them - even if it's not convenient or sometimes even hard.
Sunday, April 12, 2009
Temporal Laws, Celestial Laws and Agency
I was reading a message board tonight for LDS women and joined in a discussion about tithing. Someone had asked about their 3 year old paying tithing on a birthday gift of money. I suggested that she definitely use this as a opportunity to plant the seeds of obedience and faith in the child by having him help her fill out the slip, put the money in the envelope and hand it to the Bishop. Then, have a Family Home Evening on the Law of Tithing to reinforce the point and help them understand why we pay tithing.
I was sort of surprised at some of the responses that followed. Some said you didn't have to pay tithing on gifts, just on money you earned. Honestly, I've never seen that exception anywhere. It simply says, "Ten percent of your increase." For a 3 year old, a birthday gift of money is probably "increase" since he didn't have it yesterday.
But several said that she shouldn't just do it but instead sit down and explain what tithing is to the 3 year old and ask him if he WANTED to pay his tithing and therefore give him his agency to decide.
What do you think a 3 year old with a five dollar bill in his hand will say when you tell him you are going to take some of it? The answer will be "No". He'll say the same thing at 4 and at 5 and at 6 and at 7, 8, 9, 10, etc. What would YOU say if someone sat you down and said, "You don't HAVE to pay tithing, it's your choice. But, would you like to give away $10,000 this year on your $100,000 income?"
Now, of COURSE we all have our agency to pay tithing or not. But tithing is a Law of God. So, if we chose to NOT pay our tithing, it's not as simple as using our agency, we are literally disobeying our Father in Heaven. It's not a correct use of our agency to be disobedient.
So, what if this same mother sat her child down at 5 and said, "It's not mandatory that you go to Kindergarten, so I'm going to give you your agency to choose. Do you want to go to school or stay home and watch Power Rangers all day?" Or at 16, "Yes, that's a one-way street, but you have your agency to CHOOSE whether or not you are going to obey that law. If you think it's convenient to go the wrong way to get where you need to be, then go ahead and drive the wrong way on it."
We would never have an agency discussion with our kids on the laws of the land, yet, it seems that many are quick to pull out that "agency clause" when it comes to the Laws of God.
Yes, my kids have their agency. And they use it. But, they also know that we EXPECT them to follow the laws of God as much as we EXPECT them to follow the Laws of the Land.
We EXPECT them, as baptized members of the church, to fast on the first Sunday of the month. If they chose not to, which they do on a regular basis, they must feed themselves. They will often go into another room to eat because they KNOW they are being disobedient. We EXPECT them to go on a mission. We don't EVER say, "If you CHOOSE to go on a mission." Instead, we say, "WHEN you go on your mission." We never phrase it as if they COULD choose because in choosing, they aren't choosing what's "right" for them, they are choosing to be disobedient. At 19 can they CHOOSE to not go? Of course they can, but we aren't going to encourage that thought at their young age. They'll have to come to that on their own based on the choices they make in their teenage years. It is a commandment that every young man serve a mission. There are no "my situation is different" clauses for a healthy 19-year-old young man.
So, the idea of letting a child CHOOSE to pay tithing is as odd to me as letting a child choose whether or not they can steal a candy bar from a store. Can they choose to NOT pay it at some future date? Yes, they can. But as long as I have the opportunity to plant the seed in them that tithing is a law and we just pay it, no matter what, I will take that opportunity. I would not want to build into my children's minds that the Laws of God always have an "opt-out" clause. There is no "opting-out", there is only disobedience.
I was sort of surprised at some of the responses that followed. Some said you didn't have to pay tithing on gifts, just on money you earned. Honestly, I've never seen that exception anywhere. It simply says, "Ten percent of your increase." For a 3 year old, a birthday gift of money is probably "increase" since he didn't have it yesterday.
But several said that she shouldn't just do it but instead sit down and explain what tithing is to the 3 year old and ask him if he WANTED to pay his tithing and therefore give him his agency to decide.
What do you think a 3 year old with a five dollar bill in his hand will say when you tell him you are going to take some of it? The answer will be "No". He'll say the same thing at 4 and at 5 and at 6 and at 7, 8, 9, 10, etc. What would YOU say if someone sat you down and said, "You don't HAVE to pay tithing, it's your choice. But, would you like to give away $10,000 this year on your $100,000 income?"
Now, of COURSE we all have our agency to pay tithing or not. But tithing is a Law of God. So, if we chose to NOT pay our tithing, it's not as simple as using our agency, we are literally disobeying our Father in Heaven. It's not a correct use of our agency to be disobedient.
So, what if this same mother sat her child down at 5 and said, "It's not mandatory that you go to Kindergarten, so I'm going to give you your agency to choose. Do you want to go to school or stay home and watch Power Rangers all day?" Or at 16, "Yes, that's a one-way street, but you have your agency to CHOOSE whether or not you are going to obey that law. If you think it's convenient to go the wrong way to get where you need to be, then go ahead and drive the wrong way on it."
We would never have an agency discussion with our kids on the laws of the land, yet, it seems that many are quick to pull out that "agency clause" when it comes to the Laws of God.
Yes, my kids have their agency. And they use it. But, they also know that we EXPECT them to follow the laws of God as much as we EXPECT them to follow the Laws of the Land.
We EXPECT them, as baptized members of the church, to fast on the first Sunday of the month. If they chose not to, which they do on a regular basis, they must feed themselves. They will often go into another room to eat because they KNOW they are being disobedient. We EXPECT them to go on a mission. We don't EVER say, "If you CHOOSE to go on a mission." Instead, we say, "WHEN you go on your mission." We never phrase it as if they COULD choose because in choosing, they aren't choosing what's "right" for them, they are choosing to be disobedient. At 19 can they CHOOSE to not go? Of course they can, but we aren't going to encourage that thought at their young age. They'll have to come to that on their own based on the choices they make in their teenage years. It is a commandment that every young man serve a mission. There are no "my situation is different" clauses for a healthy 19-year-old young man.
So, the idea of letting a child CHOOSE to pay tithing is as odd to me as letting a child choose whether or not they can steal a candy bar from a store. Can they choose to NOT pay it at some future date? Yes, they can. But as long as I have the opportunity to plant the seed in them that tithing is a law and we just pay it, no matter what, I will take that opportunity. I would not want to build into my children's minds that the Laws of God always have an "opt-out" clause. There is no "opting-out", there is only disobedience.
Friday, April 10, 2009
Tuesday, April 7, 2009
Stepping it up
Mark taught the combined Priesthood/Relief Society lesson a few weeks ago and as I sat there watching him, I was thinking about how much time he spends on his calling as Bishop each week. Then, I started to think about how much time the rest of us spend doing "church things" each week. That can mean service, visiting and home teaching, preparing lessons, etc. I'm not talking about showing up to something, I'm talking about "put your shoulder to the wheel" kind of church work. Honestly, as I was thinking about myself, I was pretty ashamed at how little it really was relative to the hours in a week.
Church lasts 3 hours each week. Of those three hours, how many are we engaged in service as in a calling and how many are we just participating in a class? Once you get past Sunday (or even past those three hours), how many hours do we REALLY spend in Christ-like service or on our callings? One hour? Two hours?
As I sat there watching my husband who probably gives 20 hours a week outside of Sunday (which is about 8 hours of work many weeks), I realized that the City of Enoch didn't get translated because the church leadership was doing a lot of work. The City of Enoch got translated because the PEOPLE were working hard as a whole body.
What if we gave just one more hour each week to the Lord? What if we reached out to people we aren't already assigned to visit? What if we looked for ways to help and lift others?
We are ALL busy. Mark is busy - he works 45 hours a week and has a 90 minute daily commute, 2 kids and a wife. Honestly, he has very little leisure time and few hobbies beyond reading. His calling literally consumes his free time. He spent 2 hours on the phone last Monday night and then had to make a trip to the church. We crammed FHE around it all and he finally dropped into bed at 11pm. Yet, he does it - without complaint.
I am going to challenge myself to step it up and reach out to serve more. Really, there's no excuse for not doing that. We have been told to "love one another" and love is a verb. There are so many hours in our week that are pretty much just wasted. How much better would every ward in the church be if we turned off our TV's, computers and video games and set aside our magazines and iPods and spent time doing true Christ-like service in our wards and communities?
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