Blessings By Meeting Obligations

There have been more things on our calendar last month than there was room to write it all in; we had to have extra notes to keep track of it all. I’ve also got this big project in the back yard that has taken much more time than I expected. It feels like the important things aren’t getting done as a result of all the calendaring, particularly spending time with the kids to help with their homework and have fun with them. Plus, I haven’t felt too well emotionally for a bit.

I didn’t want to go to church yesterday. I wanted to use the time for something else. There were plenty of other options. I wanted the time to do something for myself, by myself. The deciding factor was to teach my lesson. I enjoy teaching. The interaction, the learning, the reminders are all great for everyone. My feelings leading up to yesterday’s lesson were that anyone could do it this time. But I was asked to do it so I felt it would be wrong to skip a week without a real excuse.

The lesson went better than expected although I can’t explain why. In the end, I was glad I stuck in there because I know I felt better at the end of church than if I had stayed home for something else.

That’s the way the gospel works. We are blessed when we keep the commandments and do our best. Is teaching a lesson is considered keeping a commandment? That’s a topic for the Bloggernacle people to discuss but my opinion is that we “talk of Christ, preach of Christ and rejoice in Christ” together if we take His name upon us by taking the sacrament. Furthermore, we covenanted in the temple to build up the kingdom. I’m just a tiny cog in the building process but without all the cogs working together, there would be no building process. You’re blessed when you perform in your calling, regardless of what it is. You’re blessed if you don’t have a calling when you go to church. You’re blessed if you read the scriptures. With these few paragraphs, you can tell that I may not be the best example in all these aspects. The point is that we get more out of it than what we put in. That is enough to keep me going for the next day. I hope it does for everyone else.