Thursday, July 30, 2015

August 2015 LDS Blogtrain "Embark in the Service of God"

     The LDS Blogtrain begins on 8/1/2015. This month's theme is "Embark in the Service of God." Lately I'm looking at my 13 year old son. He's huge and almost taller than his father now. Soon he will be the tallest person in our home. I think about what I can do to help him be prepared to Serve God. He is planning to serve a Latter Day Saint mission in five years. We need practice serving as a family. "Verily I say unto you, Inasmuch as ye have done it unto one of the least of these my brethren, ye have done it unto me." Matthew 25:40. I used to think serving as a family was a tricky business until this last week.
     My mother ordered a huge load of compost dirt for our greenhouse boxes. There it sat on the driveway. She'd been out in the garden all morning. She looked sun drained and beat when she said she was going out to shovel dirt. I met her outside, shovel in hand, not willing to see her toil alone. After one wheelbarrow full she suggested I run across the street and ask a neighbor if I could borrow his wheelbarrow. This would cut our work time in half. He was home, wasn't sure if he had a wheelbarrow because he usually used his little tractor, but if he had one he'd bring it by. I could hear his grandchildren and children in the family room and knew he was too busy to help. I figured I was on a mission so I moved down one house and borrowed a wheelbarrow from them. 
     When the second wheelbarrow was full (insert heavenly music here because it was a hot, sweaty day and full wheelbarrows are heavy) our neighbor, followed by his grown children, his teenage grandchildren, and his little grandchildren, all carrying a shovel or pushing a wheelbarrow, came walking down the street before us. This was the 24th of  July, a holiday in Utah. His family was visiting for a day long celebration. I was so awestruck that this is what they chose to do on a holiday.
     I was more than elated to receive the help. My son eventually dawdled out the door and took a few loads of dirt. That's when I realized my family had a lot of work to do. I wanted to be that family, the one that had no qualms about picking up a shovel and taking a half hour to make a neighbor's day. Their family was serving happily. My mother didn't quite know what to do with all the help but she managed. 
     Now we're looking at ways we can get off the couch and do some of the Lord's work. I was sick later that day. I have kidney disease and I can get heat stroke easily. I would have been so much more ill if it hadn't been for my neighbors. Though I didn't see Him personally, I felt the love of the Savior. He knew I was out there making myself sick as I served my mother. He knew of her need. Better than the moved dirt was the way this experience moved my life. I now have a higher standard of the potential a family can reach together in the service of God.