When you receive a new calling in the church, it is amazing to me the responsibility and inspiration that comes with it. I have been the young women president in the past and remember always thinking about those girls that I was responsible for. I may not have been praying formally to help them all the time, but they were always on my mind. At the most random moments, I would have a feeling of how I could help them, or what kind of lesson needed to be taught. It is amazing that when you are set apart when you receive a calling, that you truly do receive direction from the Lord on how to help those you serve.
Ever since I was called to be the new primary president in my ward, there was one particular family of children that my mind kept focusing on. I kept thinking about them for some reason, and wondering what I could do for them. They are a family of refugees from Africa. There are 6 children, 4 of which are in my primary. The other two are older. Their mother died last year, so the father is raising them alone. The oldest is only 14 years old and the youngest is 4.
I kept thinking about their temporal needs as well as their spiritual ones. I wondered who was making meals, bathing them, reading them stories before bed, etc. I wanted to know who was filling in as the mother since the father was busy working much of the time. But, rather than take any sort of action, I just sat on it. Well, I did ask my bishopric in ward council what I could do to help that family, but was met with vague answers like possibly do a family home evening with them. I had a feeling that their needs were greater, but felt that maybe the leaders in our ward weren’t even sure how to help them.
This week, I had a conversation with a fellow ward member. During the conversation, I realized that she had a lot of contact with this particular family. She sometimes went by and checked on them, brought the kids to her house occasionally, took them to school from time to time, etc. I was amazed that she was doing so much! I told her about my experience bringing it up in ward council and she said something to me that I think has changed my attitude a great deal. She said that if I felt like I needed to do something, I should just go up there myself and check on them and do it. I thought, “Of course!” What had stopped me from doing that before?
In talking to her, I realized there probably was a great need to help these kids in a more temporal way, yet I was waiting for someone to tell me to do something, or give me direction. But, I realized that day, that someone already had. It was the Lord, and I better get busy!
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