Callings

Olympia WA Stake Relief Society Presidency

Callings!

Do you have a love/hate relationship with yours?  Do you find yourself wishing you had a different calling, and then if you get that calling you wish you had your old calling back?  Do you find that your husband's calling is sort of "your" calling, too?  I mean, do you find that you kind of keep up on his calling, keeping track of his meetings and his responsibilities?  A spouse's calling definitely affects your family life.  And presidency's can be tricky.  They can be fun and they can be challenging, and sometimes both at the same time.   I can name most of the callings I've had over the years.  My favorite callings were Ward Relief Society Secretary, Activity Day Leader, and Primary Chorister.  Some of my stranger callings have been teaching Relief Society Cultural Refinement, which seems odd to me now.  We used to have lessons on foreign countries and their traditions and foods.  I was also called to choreograph a ward Mutual Broadway review.  Oh, and Reid and I were also called to be our Ward Dance Festival Specialists.  Ah, good memories! 

One good thing about callings is that they help us get to know our fellow ward members.  One bad thing about callings is, well, they keep us from getting to know our fellow ward members who aren't serving with us!  Ha, ha, well, I can't think of any other bad things about callings.  Except they take a lot of our time.  But I heard once that the time we spend on our callings is just time we would waste anyway, so we might as well be spending it on serving. 


Current things I am working on right now in my calling:  Feeding the visiting General Authority and other Stake Leaders this Saturday between Stake Conference sessions.  Flowers for Stake Conference.  Stake Auxiliary Training meeting.  Stake Women's Conference.  Ward Conferences.  Missionary Luncheons.  Ward Initiatory Assignments.   And the never ending job of keeping track of the Stake tablecloths!

I used to laugh that callings were called callings because they involved doing lots of calling!  But now we do most of it by email and texts.  Much easier than the old days. 

I'll end with this quote from Elder Boyd K. Packer from a talk called, "Called to Serve".  If you need a quick re-energizer for your calling, it's a great read!

 "The willingness of Latter-day Saints to respond to calls to serve

 is a representation of their desire to do the will of the Lord. 

 Our baptism is a call to lifelong service to Christ.

 Like those at the waters of Mormon, we are “baptized in the name of the Lord,

as a witness before him that [we] have entered into a covenant with him,

 that [we] will serve him and keep his commandments,

that he may pour out his Spirit more abundantly upon [us.]”   

 I bear witness that the gospel is true and say God bless you who serve,

bless you for what you do, and bless you for what you are!"