Shape the Back to Bear the Burden

I was going through stuff today and found a list I made when I was called to be a ward Relief Society president the first time.
It’s "101 Reasons Why I Can’t Do This Job." (Actually there were only 33.)
There was another list of reasons why I didn’t want the job.
And a third: reasons why I needed to take the job.

A few weeks ago when I was called be to stake Relief Society president, I made similar lists. It’s just something I have to do.

So finding my old list today was interesting. The substance of the “Why I can’t” list hasn’t changed much. But some. Being a RS president changed me more than anything I've done in life. It changed my very personality. Obviously not enough.

The reasons why I don’t want such a job have increased.
I'm older. I'm tired.

But most significantly, the list of reasons why I am willing to take the job got bigger. It is because of the things I learned from the first and second go-around.

This is what I know:

This is without doubt the Lord’s kingdom, and His work, and He is in it.
God lives, and reveals Himself, especially to worthy Priesthood holders.
This Church is run by revelation in every corner, even mine.
Whom the Lord calls, He qualifies. He “shapes the back to bear the burden placed upon it (TS Monson via sweet Jill).”
Perfection comes not in staying home and reading scriptures but in serving our fellow men.
I have been blessed too much and am too indebted to the Lord to refuse Him.
I love the Lord and know that to help His children is the most important and rewarding work of all.

I was set apart last week. It was a powerful and humbling experience.

I finally met today with the outgoing RS President. I felt again like a dumb little kid, and sick to my stomach all day. I felt before, but never more acutely than today, in dire need of help, and that, of myself, I am nothing.

The image that keeps coming to mind and that has gotten me through is that of a yoke.

I feel that a yoke has been put upon me, or that I have willingly stepped into it. That yoke is shared with the Lord and His servants, and as He moves forward, in a straight and steady fashion, sure of where he’s going, not distracted or deterred, we can walk together, our burden lightened by the shared load, to a glorious destination.
I am so grateful I’m not alone.


Come unto me, all ye that labour and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you; For my yoke is easy, and my burden is light. Matt 11:28-30

The Party's Over, or We've Only Just Begun

This week I unpacked the last box from the quilt show and for me the "show season" is officially over. I thought life would be easier. Wrong again. I didn't even get to heave a sigh of relief.


Tomorrow night I will officially be set apart to be the stake Relief Society president. We've already had our first presidency meeting this week.

(My brother told me that his stake RS president is Anne Madsen, the wife of Truman G. Madsen. Was that supposed to make me feel better?? He said I was in good company.)



There seems to be a lot of changes happening in my life right now.

I went to church in a new ward last Sunday. They moved our neighborhood again into a different ward. From our little neighborhood my old ward lost their RS pres and counselor, the Primary president, and the ward clerk. That’s some neighbors I have, huh?
My new ward is small but includes the stake YW pres, now the stake RS president, the just-released stake Primary president, the stake YM Secretary, 2 high councilors, and several stake seminary teachers . Especially for a stake with 17 units, that’s a pretty high concentration. Some ward I’m in, huh?


Today I had a farewell lunch with the stake YW presidency that I've been serving with. I have loved them and learned so much. The president said the saddest thing she had to do all week was take my name off her YW e-mail list, but this last get-together was saddest for me.


For the first time in my married life I have someone coming in to clean house for me. I've always said I'll feel like I have it made when someone else cleans my house. Do I feel like I have it made? Not in the least. It's a limited cleaning, but it frees me up to have book club and study group and presidency meetings and do all I have to do with less stress, and it makes my husband happy.


We've been in a drought so long that torrential rains have caused severe flooding, destroying hundreds of homes and 5 lives; people are still missing. One county alone had 75% of the corn and wheat crops damaged, and $27 million in property damage. Part of that area is in our stake. Oh, wait, isn't the stake Relief Society president supposed to do something about that???


Guess I better go read my handbook, and my book club book, and my scriptures and my Ensign and the newspaper and my e-mail and 5 years of World-Wide Training books and -- yikes! what am I doing sitting here? I gotta go.....




Be of good cheer.

The kingdom is yours and the blessings there of, and the riches of eternity.

And he who receiveth all things with thankfulness shall be made glorious.

And he that is a faithful and wise steward shall inherit all things. D&C 78

From the Frying Pan into the Fire

I was finally released from my calling in the stake YW.

I was happy about that---for about 2 seconds. Then I was called to be the Stake Relief Society President! I was so stunned I couldn’t even respond to the Stake President.
The fact that I had absolutely no premonition about this ought to be evidence that I’m not the one for this job.
I already have 10 pages of journal writings about my roller coaster ride of the past few weeks, most of it spent in abject mortification.


However, it didn’t take me long to realize, that though I may not want it, it is a great gift that is being given me:

• the gift to be better than I am,
• to get outside of myself and be useful,
• to make a lot of great new friends,
• to associate with the best people in our stake, and
• to open the door to the inspiration and blessings of God, for me and my family.

How can you turn down such gifts?


Today I was sustained, and no one objected.

Recently I was led to these words that Jesus spoke:

I do nothing but what I see my Father do.
I do nothing but what my Father taught me.
I speak only that which my Father has told me to speak.
I do only those things which please my Father.
I am in Him and He is in Me; we are one.

I’m not like the Savior or have the same mission, but, like Him, I am a child of the same Heavenly Father, and have been given a mission to perform. Like my Older Brother, it’s not about me, but about the Father’s work. We are on His errand.

No one knows better than I, that I am nothing without Him.

But I know a little of what the Father can make of us.

I hope I can be a good errand boy, a pencil in his hand, an instrument through which he can work to accomplish his purposes.

I hope that as I come more fully unto Christ, that with his help I might be of some help to others.

I hope, as Marion G. Romney once said, that I don't do more harm than good.

Wish me luck.

All prayers accepted.