Seasons
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| image from craiglockerd.com |
You know, I've sometimes cringed when people say, "There's a time and season for everything." Yes, I know there's a button on my blog that says just that...more because it fit the color scheme of my blog than anything. But anyway...
The reason I sometimes cringe at that statement is because I think we use it as a cop out, as an excuse to NOT do the things we know we could or should be doing. How many of us truly in our hearts believe that genealogy is for older people, something we'll do when we don't have kids at home anymore? And yet, hasn't it been kind of stated a few times that our work as Latter-Day Saints is to redeem the dead? Yeah. And Elder Bednar recently gave a whole talk on getting the youth involved in family history work. I just use this as the easiest example, but we use this phrase to justify a lot of things...
I'll exercise when all the kids are in school...
I'll start eating healthy when I have my last baby...
It's my season to be in the home, so I can't say yes to that calling...
etc...
etc...
Yes, I believe there are seasons. But I believe that seasons have the possibility of changing daily. What "season" does the Lord need me to be in today? People tend to put themselves in boxes that only limit their potential to make great things happen every day. If I feel the urging to work on family history today, maybe that is where the Lord needs me. If I feel the yearning to play a game with the kids rather than mop my kitchen floor, maybe that is the "good part" that must be chosen. Living our lives daily for Christ changes our perspective on the "time and seasons" principle. And when we live this way....just imagine the possibilities!
*****
"Counsel with the Lord in all thy doings, and he will direct thee for good; yea, when thou liest down at night lie down unto the Lord, that he may watch over you in your sleep; and when thou risest in the morning let thy heart be full of thanks unto God; and if ye do these things, ye shall be lifted up at the last day."
Alma 37:37
I felt that way about missionary work when I was a ward missionary. People think they don't have time to help with ANY part of it sometimes and when we had sister missionaries, I was asked to assign the sisters to certain days to go out on exchanges with the missionaries and oh boy was there a big stink. We did the schedule four months at a time, so they could switch if needed and if everyone did it, they'd only have to go twice a year, but there was still all kinds of backlash and madness at me. It was a good thing I could take that sort of thing and mostly brush it off.
ReplyDeleteThe reason sister missionaries need someone with them is so they can visit male investigators who they have appointments with. Isn't that what we want? We shouldn't make them cancel appointments to someone interested just because we don't want to do things.
(Now, of course, there were some people who had legitimate reasons they couldn't go, but most of the complainers just didn't seem to want to be out of their comfort zone.)
The good: One older lady asked that she be assigned again when it was still light at night because she couldn't drive in the dark anymore. She could have used that as an excuse to be taken off the list, but she didn't. I so appreciated that AND I loved going with the sister missionaries on visits and helping to teach a bit.