My talk:
Elder
Renlund was called to serve as a member of the 12 Apostles last fall during
General Conference. As he began his talk, he spoke of how, when he was much
younger, he’d been called as a bishop, and his older (and much wiser brother)
phoned him to say, “You need to know that the Lord hasn’t called you for
anything you have done. In your case, it is probably in spite of what you have
done. The Lord has called you for what He needs to do through you, and that
will happen only if you do it His way.”
Elder Renlund went on to say that he recognized the wisdom in this
advice, and that he felt it applied even more today, with his call as a member
of the 12 Apostles.
The focus of his talk was to emphasize
how important it is for us to train our spirits to see everyone we serve as the
son or daughter of our Father in Heaven. REALLY see them that way. He pointed
out that his experience with “missionary service was that when a missionary
realizes that the call to be a missionary isn’t about themselves, but it is
about the Lord, His work, and Heavenly Father’s children,” then TRUE service
begins.
God is truly our Father. Anyone here
who has been blessed to be a parent can understand how parent eyes are
different than other people’s eyes. I’ve been teaching school for 21 years. I’m
astonished that it has been that long, but I always say that my 20 years of
being a mother before I became a teacher is what trained me to manage large
groups of small children. Some days, though, I can find myself getting very impatient
with some of my students. They act like kids!! I mean…Seriously? Then, I take a deep
breath, remember that they are only nine years old, and I calm down. I also remind
them of the procedures and rules we’ve established, I hold them responsible for
their actions, and I try to use a calm voice.
It totally reminds me of how our
Father in Heaven tries to deal with us, His unruly children here on earth. We
have the scriptures to remind us of the procedures and rules that are
established. We have the Old Testament, the New Testament, the Book of Mormon,
and the Doctrine and Covenants. See how these rules and procedures build on
each other, so that for each group of children, and each period of our earthly
existence, our Father has taught us the right way to act, and what we should be
doing, and what we should not be doing? And, even today, we have the Ensign
magazine that publishes the most recent statements from our modern day
prophets, so that we might study and remind ourselves of how we should act.
It’s just like school---we get unruly, we get reminded of how we should calm
down and behave.
Elder Renlund went on to say that our
service in the church isn’t about us, it is about the people we serve, and how
vital it is that we maintain a conscious remembrance that they are beloved
spirit sons and daughters of heavenly parents, and have a divine nature and
destiny. When we can see others as their
loved ones see them, our perspective is altered.
I occasionally run into my students
“out there” in the world, like when I’m grocery shopping. I’m always taken
aback by how they are just little children, when I see them with their families
around town. I know I shouldn’t be amazed, but sometimes, they and I may have
locked horns at school so often, that I inflate them into someone with more
power than they ought to have over me. But, encountering a student with their
mom in the cereal aisle will always jolt me back to the reality that, in fact,
they are a little child. And they are beloved by their parents, and are
precious and dear to them. This is good for me. I need to always be kind. I
need to teach them writing and reading, but it goes so much better when I am a
kind, considerate person. I get entrusted with people’s treasures; it’s
important that I remember that.
We are surrounded every day by treasures---God’s
treasures. We knew each other in the premortal world. We need to remember that
we are spirit brothers and sisters. I grew up in a very small community that
was populated by mostly relatives. Seriously, my mother had dozens and dozens
of cousins. My father’s family was large, too, and so about half the people I
associated with in my childhood were related to me in some way. I tell you this
because it meant that I mostly knew only people who looked a lot like me, and
lived a life very similar to mine, and culturally were very much like me. It
was easy to learn the doctrine of our premortal relatedness, because my mortal
life was about the same.
When we were married, Br. Frome was in
the Navy and we lived in San Diego for about 12 years, and 10 years were in one
ward. I had a wonderful time in my neighborhood there, because it was filled
with people from all walks of life, and whose ancestors had come from a variety
of nations. I learned so much! We shared food, music, and it was obvious to me
that they loved their children as much as I loved mine.
While we lived there,
there were refugee groups from Viet Nam, and then from Laos who settled in our
neighborhood, to add to our polyglot world. Church was similar---it was very
different looking than the ward where I’d grown up. Rather than the familiar
Swedish/Swiss/German/English faces of my childhood, I was surrounded by
Filipino, Japanese, Hispanic, African-American, Samoan, and, of course, some Swiss/Swedish/German/English faces and names. And we were all brothers and
sisters. We ended up with a branch of Laotian members associated with our ward.
These people had been helped by LDS missionaries in the refugee camps in Asia,
and when they were resettled in California, they sought out the church in
gratitude. We were truly all children of the same loving Father.
We had to help them in many ways. For instance, because most of them had come from a very rural way of life, we needed to teach them that indoor plumbing was to be used in the city: don't just go around to the alley, and stand there to do your business--go to a bathroom. Use diapers for your babies. However, once when I stopped by to pick up a girl to go to Young Women, I walked in to find everyone at dinner. This meal was served on a large, woven mat on the floor. Everyone sat criss-cross on the edges, and ate from communal bowls that were spread out in the center. They did own a small table, but it was used for the children to do homework, and to hold their television (which was watched in order to learn "good English" I was told.) There was absolutely no need for anyone to teach them that Americans ate dinner seated on chairs around a table. Their mealtime custom was just fine. In fact, their house was immaculately clean. You couldn't have eaten off my floor...The point is: there are many right ways to do many things. But we need to look at people through God's eyes, so that we don't confuse the ways in which we need to "help" people.
In Mosiah 18:8-10 it says:
8 And it came to pass that he said unto them: Behold,
here are the waters of Mormon (for thus were they called) and now, as ye are
desirous to come into the fold of God, and to be called his people, and are
willing to bear one another’s burdens, that they may be light;
9 Yea, and are willing to mourn with those that mourn;
yea, and comfort those that stand in need of comfort, and to stand as witnesses
of God at all times and in all things, and in all places that ye may be in,
even until death, that ye may be redeemed of God, and be numbered with those of
the first resurrection, that ye may have eternal life—
10 Now I say unto you, if this be the desire of your
hearts, what have you against being baptized in the name of the Lord, as a
witness before him that ye have entered into a covenant with him, that ye will
serve him and keep his commandments, that he may pour out his Spirit more
abundantly upon you?
We have no better way to honor our
Father in Heaven than to remember always that we are all brothers and sisters,
and we need to see other through His eyes. We must not look at one another to
criticize or judge or condemn. But we must look and strive to see the worth of
their souls. Reach out to other people. Smile more, speak kindly, serve people
with no expectation of an earthly reward.
Love one another.
Mormon,
in Moroni 7:48, admonished,
“Wherefore,
my beloved brethren, pray unto the Father with all the energy of heart, that ye
may be filled with this love, which he hath bestowed upon all who are true
followers of his Son Jesus Christ.
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