Faith Leads to Action

As women we are told many things to help improve our lives.

On the one hand we are directed to simplify our lives, to take time and to slow down.

On the other, we are asked to care for others, dropping everything to be there for them, and this doesn’t mean just our families.

How can we possibly do both? Life is full of contradiction and compromise.

I am pretty good at one of these directives, and then not so good at the other.
I crave simplicity. I actively look for ways to cut out distraction, to lessen activity, and not because I am lazy (though at times that may be true). I do it because we are a happier family if we are not running to and fro at a frantic pace.

I have to admit that because I am working towards doing less, adding more charitable work to my schedule seems a conflict of interest. Don’t get me wrong, 99% of the time, if you need me, I’ll do whatever it takes…but you have to ask. I’m not focused on seeking you out.

I know, I should be.

Lately, I feel as though I’m being pricked, poked into realizing that I need to grow and that there just might be a better way. I’ve noticed a greater sense of love for others and a stronger desire to help. I’ve felt a need to be charitable, to seek for opportunities to give service. I’ve watched others and have spent time contemplating how I could help and what they might need.

Last Sunday our Relief Society lesson was on Elder Eyring’s talk from conference, “Opportunities To Do Good.” And then I re-listened to that same talk while running last week.

“Our Heavenly Father hears the prayers of His children across the earth pleading for food to eat, for clothes to cover their bodies, and for the dignity that would come from being able to provide for themselves. Those pleas have reached Him since He placed men and women on the earth.

You learn of those needs where you live and from across the world. Your heart is often stirred with feelings of sympathy. When you meet someone struggling to find employment, you feel that desire to help. You feel it when you go into the home of a widow and see that she has no food. You feel it when you see photographs of crying children sitting in the ruins of their home destroyed by an earthquake or by fire.

Because the Lord hears their cries and feels your deep compassion for them, He has from the beginning of time provided ways for His disciples to help. He has invited His children to consecrate their time, their means, and themselves to join with Him in serving others.”

I have felt that wake-up call to action. I know I can do so much more. I understand that this will take faith; faith to prioritize according as the Lord sees fit, not based on my list of to-do’s. It will take faith to ask Him every day in solemn prayer, what He would have me do.

One young woman bore her testimony today in Sacrament meeting about her opportunity to give service and then how she also gave a Book of Mormon as a gift. She said that the feelings she had were indescribable and confessed that “if this is what it feels like to serve a mission, why wouldn’t I want to go?”

And so I ask myself…

If reaching out to my fellowmen in the way the Lord would have me do would make me feel more fulfilled and bring me more joy than I could possibly hold in my heart, then why wouldn’t I do it?