I
really don’t have time for this today, but my thoughts as I read Moroni 6
turned to the “30 Days of Service” our ward has completed the last 30 days, and
my feelings on it.
As
I read Moroni 6:4, I referenced in the margin Ephesians 2:19 “Now therefore ye
are no more strangers and foreigners, but fellow citizens with the saints, and
of the household of God;” My margin
reference said Helaman 6:3: “Nevertheless, the people of the church did have
great joy because of the conversion of the Lamanites, yea, because of the
church of God, which had been established among them. And they did fellowship
one with another, and did rejoice one with another, and did have great
joy.” Ironically, the note I put on that
verse was Moroni 6:4. Key words in that
verse are cleansed, remembered, nourished, watchful. And what I felt last night at our gathering
was rejoicing and joy and fellowship with some pretty wonderful people.
I
hope I can articulate adequately my thoughts.
We had our gathering last night as the culmination of our 30 days of
service. I admit this is a little
annoying to me because when I first heard it my thought was: “Oh! Just one service a day? Piece of cake!” There are some days I feel like the only
thing I did all day was serve. That’s
where I am in my life. That’s what I’m
supposed to be doing. There are other
days I get involved in my own business and I serve nobody. Or at least that’s how I feel. Clyde points out that is totally false.
These
verses I’ve pointed out show what I felt last night at our meeting. There was such a feeling of love present that
it was tangible. You could not have come
away feeling anything but love. People
came together to share some of their feelings on the experience. I would call it more of a “30 days of focus”
for me, as that’s what I was doing. I
changed very little of what I was doing.
I did try to speak cheerfully to strangers more often. I would have
loved this activity as a mom of younger children. It would have been very impacting. But what did I get out of it? A continuation of the feelings I get all year
long as I try ever so hard to not let a day go by without helping someone along
the way. Often, that is my mom and
meeting her needs. But that is still
service, and I know the Lord is pleased.
I have grown as I’ve served her.
I have come to appreciate the sacrifices she has made through the years
in my behalf. She did the best she knew
to raise a family, and that is all that is asked of any of us. We do our best. And to the Lord, (as we talked about in SS
yesterday), it is enough. I am
enough. As long as I’m yoked with the
Savior, what I do is enough. I am
enough.
One
reason this is so is because as I do all I can do, I begin to feel the love the
Savior talked about. My heart enlarges
with this love. And it is love the Lord
wants us to have for each other. Why?
Because then we want to help each other.
We reach out to each other more.
We try harder to lighten the load of others. It becomes our quest to do so, and we become
more like our Savior whose entire life was dedicated to helping us return to
our Heavenly Father. I know this is
true, and although there will be days when maybe I don’t do as well as I’d
like, I know I always do something. And
it is enough.
