my talk on service

I don't remember ever having such a hard time writing a talk. I never got to the "flow" part and it was just a struggle--usually after I pick a topic and get some basic quotes down. I rearrange things and write and it usually reaches a point where the writing seems to flow and everything comes together. Not this time.

After spending hours on one talk, I basically scrapped it and spent hours writing a whole new talk that just slightly overlapped the first one. I didn't like that one either. I hunted for a different topic. I vacillated back and forth with trying to work on the 2nd talk I'd written and coming up with a 3rd talk. Finally, I had to give in. It was 10 pm. So in the morning I did make just a few notes in the margins, but since I also had Sharing Time today, I pretty much left it as it was.

So, here was my written talk, which of course isn't exactly like my spoken one, but close enough. Oh, I italicize quotes and scriptures. It helps me keep my thoughts separate from the quotes and is easier to see than just quote marks. Now let's see if studying all this will make a difference in my life.

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What a great blessing it is to live in this day and age when we have a living prophet and where God speaks to man and that we can so easily access His words. General Conference is one of the most wonderful gifts that Heavenly Father has given to us.

If we wonder what the Lord wants us to know, we can see what His Apostles talked about at the last Conference  just by looking in the topic index of the General Conference issue of the Ensign to see what the hot topics are. I discovered that in this past conference, 9 talks were given on the topic of service…and 6 were given on that same topic in April’s Conference--for a whopping total of 15 in one year, which is way more than any other topic.

When I saw that the topic was service, I was a bit hesitant to tackle it as I am not always the best example of service (as anyone who has been visit taught by me can attest). Service is something I struggle with at times. Glen‘s family has been a great example to me in this area. And that is one of the reasons why I love my calling in the primary. It is such a blessing for me to be able to attend ward council meetings and hear of the wonderful Christlike service performed by the members of that council and others.

I. SCRIPTURES AND EXAMPLES

The scriptures are full of entreaties for us to serve as well as full of examples of service, especially in the Savior‘s life. His life is all about service. Even His death was a service to us. Looking at the lives of our modern-day apostles and prophets, we find plenty of examples of what it means to serve.

In Matthew 22 The Savior taught that the first and great commandment is:

“Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy mind. …

“And the second is like unto it, Thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself.

“On these two commandments hang all the law and the prophets” (Matthew 22:37, 39–40).

We show that love by serving.

***

Matthew 25
“Come, ye blessed of my Father, inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world,” the Savior teaches. And then He tells us how:

“For I was an hungred, and ye gave me meat: I was thirsty, and ye gave me drink: I was a stranger, and ye took me in:

“Naked, and ye clothed me: I was sick, and ye visited me: I was in prison, and ye came unto me.

“Then shall the righteous answer him, saying, Lord, when saw we thee an hungred, and fed thee? or thirsty, and gave thee drink?

“When saw we thee a stranger, and took thee in? or naked, and clothed thee?
“Or when saw we thee sick, or in prison, and came unto thee?

“And the King shall answer and say unto them, Verily I say unto you, Inasmuch as ye have done it unto one of the least of these my brethren, ye have done it unto me.”

***

In Sister Linda K Burton’s talk, she stated,
One of the greatest evidences we have that our beloved prophet, President Thomas S. Monson, is the Lord’s chosen servant is that he has learned to follow the Savior’s example—serving individually, one by one. Those of us who have entered the waters of baptism have covenanted to do the same. We have covenanted to “always remember [the Savior] and keep his commandments,” and He has said, “This is my commandment, That ye love one another, as I have loved you.”

So, we have our injunctions to serve and examples to follow. Now we need to see our opportunities and take advantage of them.

II. OPPORTUNITIES

In the hymn Have I Done Any Good in the World Today (hymn 223), we are reminded that “there are chances for work all around just now, opportunities right in our way.” There are 2 kinds of opportunities--those that are already sort of “pre-scheduled” in our lives and those that we can seek out by being anxiously engaged in a good cause and doing things of our own free will and choice and

Elder Hales  gives some areas where we built-in chances to serve.

He relates the story of when Jesus asked Peter three times, “Simon, son of Jonas, lovest thou me?” When Peter expressed his love, the Savior implored him, “Feed my lambs. … Feed my sheep.”

This is the call of Christ to every Christian today: “Feed my lambs. … Feed my sheep”—share my gospel with young and old, lifting, blessing, comforting, encouraging, and building them, especially those who think and believe differently than we do. We feed His lambs in our homes by how we live the gospel: keeping the commandments, praying, studying the scriptures, and emulating His love. We feed His sheep in the Church as we serve in priesthood quorums and auxiliary organizations. And we feed His sheep throughout the world by being good Christian neighbors, practicing the pure religion of visiting and serving the widows, the fatherless, the poor, and all who are in need.  

Family life and the whole church is set up in a way that it gives us ample opportunities to step outside of ourselves. The Priesthood is a service organization and a power…no man uses his priesthood to bless himself, but to bless others around him, with Home Teaching being one of the ways to accomplish that. The Relief Society is for organizing the relief of others as well as for the teaching of the sisters to strengthen them and their families.  The RS has its inspired Visiting Teaching program.

The Young Men’s organization and scouting program involves chances for service, especially in the Eagle Scout projects. The Young Women’s personal progress projects often involve serving. We even touch on it in the Primary. Just last week the Sharing Time lesson was on service.

BYU’s motto is “Enter to learn, go forth to serve.”  Our tithing slips are all about service--tithing goes to serve and help further the work, fast offering helps the poor, the missionary fund, the Perpetual Education Fund and the Temple Assistance Patron Fund are all ways to help others.

Besides being assigned to visit and home teach, we are often given callings in the church. As we fulfill our duties, we are serving. We have chances to give talks, to pray, and to participate in lessons and music. These are all service.

Every time we hold Family Home Evening or have family scripture study or prayer, we are serving our children.

Every time we do family history research and enter the temple and perform work there, we are serving our kindred dead.

I would like to talk a minute about music, as well as other talents we might have. Elder Eyring’s talk in the Priesthood session of conference dealt with helping our children to achieve their full potential in God’s kingdom by helping them realize their talents. He said,

God knows our gifts. My challenge to you and to me is to pray to know the gifts we have been given, to know how to develop them, and to recognize the opportunities to serve others that God provides us. But most of all, I pray that you will be inspired to help others discover their special gifts from God to serve.

We are given talents and gifts so that they can be used to bless the lives of others.

Elder Ballard talks about how to find opportunities to serve:

That simple practice is: In your morning prayer each new day, ask Heavenly Father to guide you to recognize an opportunity to serve one of His precious children. Then go throughout the day with your heart full of faith and love, looking for someone to help. Stay focused, just like the honeybees focus on the flowers from which to gather nectar and pollen. If you do this, your spiritual sensitivities will be enlarged and you will discover opportunities to serve that you never before realized were possible.

I wish this were my own story to relate, but I have not really tried to follow this counsel yet. But, a few years ago, my sister tried to do this. She told me that she was afraid that she would be overwhelmed by all the Spirit would tell her that needed doing, but in her “experiment upon the word” she discovered that the Spirit directed her to help others, but it was always within her capacity and she was not given more than she could deal with.

Elder Ballard continues:

President Thomas S. Monson has taught that in many instances Heavenly Father answers another person’s prayers through us—through you and me—through our kind words and deeds, through our simple acts of service and love.

And President Spencer W. Kimball said: “God does notice us, and he watches over us. But it is usually through another person that he meets our needs. Therefore, it is vital that we serve each other” (Teachings of Presidents of the Church: Spencer W. Kimball [2006], 82).

I know that if you do this—at home, at school, at work, and at church—the Spirit will guide you, and you will be able to discern those in need of a particular service that only you may be able to give. You will be prompted by the Spirit ….

It is my humble prayer, brothers and sisters, that we will ask in our daily prayers for the inspiration to find someone for whom we can provide some meaningful service, including the service of sharing the gospel truths and our testimonies.

The Spirit will guide us and therefore our service will be with wisdom and in order.

Sister Linda K Burton teaches us that we may need to practice serving and teaches us a way to do that:

For some, serving or ministering one by one, following the Savior’s example, doesn’t come easily. But with practice, each of us can become more like the Savior as we serve God’s children. To help us better love one another, I would like to suggest four words to remember: “First observe, then serve.”

So, if we pray to be able to recognize opportunities, and then look around and observe those around us, we will be able to appropriately serve.

We look in our own homes to our families, we look to the temple where we can serve our kindred dead, we look to serve in our church callings and as home and visiting teachers, and in our communities. In other words, we serve all, and we don’t need to look far. Mother Teresa said, "Never worry about numbers. Help one person at a time, and always start with the person nearest you."


President Thomas S Monson (p 110) God Be with You Till We Meet Again

May we ever watch over one another, assisting in times of need. Let us not be critical and judgmental but let us be tolerant, ever emulating the Savior’s example of loving-kindness. In that vein, may we willingly serve one another. May we pray for the inspiration to know of the needs of those around us, and then may we go forward and provide assistance.

Let us be of good cheer as we go about our lives. Although we live in increasingly perilous times, the Lord loves us and is mindful of us. He is always on our side as we do what is right. He will help us in time of need.

election experiment

I know the tide turns...and sometimes it goes back and forth several times before we know the winner. I thought it might be interesting to watch how it goes. I will update occasionally.

At 4:04 pacific time (according to FOX):
Obama   72,538   with   3 electorial votes
Romney  124,190           0

ack in the 2 minutes since I've typed this one site now gives 3 for Obama and 19 for Romney (FOX) and another gives 3 for Obama and 8 for Romney (according to Politico) ...things change fast.

maybe that would be fun to do, too...track the different news agencies and see how they differ in awarding states electorial votes to the candidates...but I don't have time for that.

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4:11
Obama 330,821   with 3
Romney 362,05 with 19

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4:30
Obama  1,053,638 with 3
Romney 1,170,552 with 19

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4:55
Obama    2,802,517  with  3
Romney  2,902,150    with  49

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5:15
Obama    4,559,200   with  79
Romney      5,001,012   with  71

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5:38
Obama   8,370, 986 with 78
Romney  9,236,077 with 88

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6:13
Obama   13,458,856 with  123 (109 by Politico)
Romney   14,185,025 with   154 (141 by Politico)

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6:32
Obama 17,401,466 with 153 (123 by Politico)
Romney 18,064,711 with 154 (153 by Politico)

 *****

went to class and missed everything else

9:30
Obama 49,204,276 with 290
Romney 49,227,135 with 203
(that was over so quickly...remember the days of not knowing until the middle of the night or the next day who had won?)
*****

Can't say I'm surprised, but I am sad. I would have liked to have seen Montana.

But, you know, when Clinton was elected for a second term, I felt as if the world was ending...and it didn't. And when Bush won a second term, I had some friends who felt as if the world was ending...and it didn't. So, although I think this is a worse situation than previously known, I think we will survive. Here's to relying on the Lord and seeking His Spirit to help us and guide us.