Lord, make me an Instrument in Thy Hands

Alma 17

The sons of Mosiah go on missions to declare the word to the Lamanites. The first story is about Ammon in the land of Ishmael. He is taken captive by the king. The king is pleased with him and he becomes his servant. Ammom and several of the king's servants go out to water the king's flocks and the Lamanites scatter their herd. The servants fear the king will kill them as he has other servants who have had similar experiences. Ammom sees this as his opportunity to show forth the power of the Lord and saves the king's flocks.

This is an amazing story of how a missionary can influence. As amazing as it is, however, it's not what grabbed me as I was reading this morning. I only had time for the first few verses and finished the chapter this afternoon. But it hit me with force enough to cause me to think about it several times during the day.

I will admit I feel overwhelmed at times as to how I'm going to convince the women in our stake of their responsibility as covenant members of the Lord to care for each other. It seems to be the one area they are struggling in. This is what I thought of as I read Verse 9. I have such a strong desire to be an instrument in the Lord's hands. In order to do so, I must fast and pray much. I'm good on the praying. Maybe fasting more is where I could pump it up. Or maybe focusing my fast more on helping these women. But this is what jumped out this morning – maybe a little more this morning than this afternoon when I reread it. “. . . to bring their brethren . . . to the knowledge of the truth. . . . of the baseness of the traditions of their fathers, which were not correct.”

Here is what I was thinking. Our young women are somewhat turned off at the thought of visiting teaching because that is what they've heard their mothers and grandmothers were doing all of their youth. The generation before these young women was less about ministering and more of “getting their visiting teaching done”, aka “we visited”. Today, the General Board is asking that we return to the pattern of ministering as it was designed by the Lord when the Relief Society was organized by Joseph Smith. It is in ministering that we will be made instruments in the Lord's hands. It is then that we will be aware of those whom we have stewardship over and will desire so much to be an instrument in the Lord's hands that we will find ourselves lifting each others' burdens in whatever way we are inspired by the Spirit.