It’s Mother’s Day on Day 4, and since it’s Sunday, I’ll talk about church callings. For anyone reading this who isn’t LDS, let me explain. In our church all of the teachers, leaders, musicians, etc are unpaid. We receive a calling from the Lord through the bishop (the leader of the congregation similar to a pastor) and then usually fulfill those callings for a period of a few years. My mom has done all kinds of things over the years from leading the music in Primary (the children’s organization), to teaching teen Sunday school, teaching gospel doctrine, being a beehive leader (teaching young women ages 12-13), and now as the Relief Society president (the women’s organization). I’m sure I missed some.
I’ve seen her worry about finding the right way to get through to teenagers, watched her get up early every morning to prepare gospel doctrine lessons, and more recently, fret about overseeing the Relief Society. All of these jobs have required a large amount of effort for her to be successful, and I know there were times when she came home after teaching a lesson when she was unhappy because she couldn’t get through to the audience. Still, she never gave up, only searched for a more effective way to teach the next lesson.
I don’t think it has ever occured to her to not accept a calling–if the Lord wants her to do the job, she’ll give it her all, and she’ll never complain about the time she spends or the fact that she’s so busy and often foregoes sleep to do the job she accepted.