What A Relief!

One of the things that sets The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints apart from other churches is the fact that we do not have paid clergy. We are led by a bishop, who serves us without pay. He and his counselors lead our regular Sacrament meetings, counsel with anyone who needs counsel, and spend countless hours attending youth and child activities. During those Sacrament meetings, each ward member gets the opportunity to speak. We are asked, usually one to two weeks in advance, and given a topic to speak on, usually a talk that has been given in General Conference by one of the Apostles. Today, it was Dee and my turn to speak. I didn't tell other family...it is hard enough to give a talk to your friends in the ward, without having family there! My talk was based on a talk given by Elder Neil A. Maxwell, entitiled "Consecrate Thy Performance". I spoke about the importance of our giving not just our money, but our devotion, our time and our talents to doing the best we can in the Church Callings we are given. As I said, we don't have a paid clergy, so we all have what we call "callings". Some are called to teach. Some are called to lead. I am called as a cub scout bear den leader, a calling that I dearly love!! Dee is our ward clerk. He keeps track of the records of the members in our ward. He updates births, baptisms, blessings, priesthood ordinations, and makes sure the records kept in Salt Lake City are accurate. One of the goals I have set for myself for the coming year is to devote more time to daily prayer, scripture study, and being the best I can be in my church calling.
Dee also spoke. His talk was based on a talk by Claudio R.M. Costa entitled "Gather To The Temple".Soon we will have a temple within two miles of our home. He spoke about the importance of the things that occur in the temple and how important it is for us to establish a habit of temple attendance now, so we will continue that habit when the temple is near. (Right now, the temple is about an hour from our home.) I am also going to set a goal to increase my temple attendance in the coming year.
Though the week was busy, with airport trips, a funeral, Christmas, seven hours of gingerbread baking, day after Christmas shopping, and freezing weather, it was good to share what the Lord's servants have spoken about, along with our own insights from our studies. Though it was tough, I am sure glad my turn is over, at least for a year!