March 2014 - Service and Ministering

"One of the assurances that you are being purified is an increasing desire to serve others for the Savior. Home teaching and visiting teaching become more of a joy and less of a chore. You find yourself volunteering more often in a local school or helping care for the poor in your community. Even though you may have little money to give to those who have less, you wish you had more so that you could give more (see Mosiah 4:24). You find yourself eager to serve your children and to show them how to serve others."     President Henry B. Eyring

This is so true. I have seen this in my life and I long to feel like I am living this way again. I feel as though I ebb and flow and have been ebbing for too long.

Elder M. Russell Ballard of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles has encouraged us to pray for opportunities to serve: “In your morning prayer each new day, ask Heavenly Father to guide you to recognize an opportunity to serve one of His precious children. Then go throughout the day … looking for someone to help” (“Be Anxiously Engaged,” Ensign, Nov. 2012, 31). (emphasis added)

Keys to Ministering

Emulate the Savior.

Reach out to the one.

Seek inspiration.

Nurture.

Be faithful in your ministry.

Ministering means doing “the work of the Lord on the earth” and helping others to “become true followers of Jesus Christ.” That work, President Thomas S. Monson has said, includes reaching out to “the aged, the widowed, the sick, those with disabilities, the less active, and those who are not keeping the commandments.”

When we minister, we should seek and heed promptings from the Spirit. As President Monson has said, “If we are observant and aware, and if we act on the promptings which come to us, we can accomplish much good.”

“We are surrounded by those in need of our attention, our encouragement, our support, our comfort, our kindness. … We are the Lord’s hands here upon the earth, with the mandate to serve and to lift His children. He is dependent upon each of us.”

President Thomas S. Monson, “What Have I Done for Someone Today?” Ensign, Nov. 2009, 86.

“Often small acts of service are all that is required to lift and bless another: a question concerning a person’s family, quick words of encouragement, a sincere compliment, a small note of thanks, a brief telephone call,” said President Monson.

I want my life to be one of service. I have tried to live that way. It brings true happiness. I feel like I have been in a several year slump. I want to be an instrument in His hands.