Tag Archives: callings

Are You Aspiring to a Calling?

Have you ever aspired to a calling? At the adult session of my stake conference, my stake president spoke about this briefly. He actually shared a personal story of a time when he was sure he was going to receive a calling, but then he did not. He spoke of the brief disappointment, and then the realization that the Lord knew what He was doing. He also spoke of how people are prepared to serve. Since then I have been thinking about this. This January when I was released as a Sunday School teacher, I was told that they already … Continue reading →

Resources for Your Calling

Are you having trouble with your calling? Do you need help teaching or are unsure of what you should be doing? Are in charge of an in-service meeting where you need to train your teachers? You can find out more about what you should be doing in a few simple places. If you are a teacher, there is a great section in the front of every manual that explains what your basic duties are. It should give guidelines on what resources you should use, as well as how to handle problems in the class. You can also consult the book … Continue reading →

Serving in the Relief Society: Compassionate Service Leader

Another calling in the Relief Society is compassionate service leader. The compassionate service leader is in charge of coordinating all the service that needs to be done. She helps to assign sisters to take in meals, find babysitting and coordinates volunteers for other activities. She will work closely with the Relief Society president to help the sisters in the ward. My mother served as compassionate service leader for several years while I was growing up. I remember that she was on the phone a lot more than usual. A compassionate service leader does spend a lot of time on the … Continue reading →

Primary Time: Nursery Leader

Nursery provides an important service for the members of the church. Many people mistakenly look at nursery class as a simple babysitting class, so that the parents of toddlers can teach or attend their classes. This is not the case. Nursery is designed to help prepare the toddlers to sit still and learn in Primary. The lessons also teach the basics of the gospel. They emphasize how much God loves each of the little children. This is a wonderful foundation to be teaching the children. If you are teaching nursery, it is important to approach the calling with a positive … Continue reading →

Serving in the Relief Society: Teacher

Another calling in the Relief Society is as a teacher. A teacher is responsible for giving the lessons on Sunday. One nice thing about Relief Society is that you generally are just assigned one week a month to teach. This allows a teacher ample time to prepare her lesson. The lessons for the second and third week are assigned from The Teachings of the Living Prophets manual (currently Spencer W Kimball) and the fourth week’s lessons are from past General Conference talks. While I have never actually served as a teacher in Relief Society, I have had the opportunity to … Continue reading →

Serving in the Relief Society: Visiting Teaching Coordinator and Supervisor

When you think of Relief Society and callings you may jump quickly to thinking of serving in the Relief Society presidency, but you would be missing several important callings. These callings may seem small on the surface, but actually do play an important role in helping the Relief Society presidency to complete their tasks. Two of these callings are visiting teaching coordinator and visiting teaching supervisor. The visiting teaching coordinator is responsible for overseeing the supervisor. She usually sits down with the Relief Society to assign routes. This can be tricky when you think of matching people who want a … Continue reading →

Five Helps for Sunday School Teachers

If you are a Sunday school teacher you may be struggling with how much you need to prepare each week. You may also be wondering how to vary the lessons and to make them more interesting. Another problem area may be encouraging class participation. The methods that you will use vary widely if you are teaching fifteen-year-olds versus Gospel Doctrine. The church does recommend that you stick to church published materials, and that you stay as close to the lesson topics as possible. Here are five tips for making your Sunday school lessons more effective. 1) Prepare in advance. If … Continue reading →

Should You Ever Decline a Calling?

You may ask yourself if it is ever acceptable to decline a calling. Is it okay to ask to be released from a calling? These two questions are difficult to answer and truly depend on your personal circumstances. It may be that you are willing to serve, but the area that you are asked to serve in would not work with your schedule. It could be that you are truly overwhelmed by life in general and the new calling would send you over the edge. When you are extended a calling for church, and you are not certain as to … Continue reading →

Giving Thanks to Those Who Serve

The LDS church is unique in the fact that the leaders and teachers of the congregation all work on a volunteer basis. Almost every member has a calling to fulfill or a way that they help others in the ward. It may be for this reason that we often neglect to express appreciation to those who serve us. It may be that you are so busy fulfilling your calling that you forget those around you who are serving as well. It is important to express your thanks for a job well done through out the year. If someone has gone … Continue reading →

The Blessings of Callings

It is important to realize that at some point that you may have a calling that you really just do not feel like doing. Or you may have a point in your calling when you do not want to do it anymore. This is a part of human nature. There are callings which some people dread (like nursery) while others simply love serving there. It is important to realize that callings can help us learn and to grow. One example from my own life is when I was called to serve on the Enrichment committee a few years ago. I … Continue reading →