which was borne of four

I have stress about my calling. It seems like such an easy calling, and maybe it is for some. But not for me.

On the way into our stake single adult committee meeting tonight I prayed as I walked in the door. I literally said "Heavenly Father....please help me to not be a jerk." Honestly, this is what I feared. I have a whole bucket of preconceived notions about single adults, being a single adult, and trying to get other single adults to participate. (It stems from never being one of the 'cool kids' as it were. I STILL don't know how that works.) I've met with this committee only once before and they are all good people. They work hard and have good ideas and their own testimonies. I don't really know any of them much better than that, but I really wanted to be open and humble. So I asked Heavenly Father to help me not be a jerk. He did (I think).

Tonight was a good meeting. Our stake presidency adviser gave us some training from the area Seventy whose inspiration lead to these callings and this new method in the first place. Training is GOOD. I so love training in the church. It usually starts with the words "The handbook says" and ends with something like "and that's what the Savior would do." This was no different. This training was specific and to the point and I had a lightning moment in that meeting tonight when everything lined up in my brain and the thought appeared: "Oh! I get it. I can do this" followed quickly by "The Lord will tell me how He wants me to do this." Thank heavens for that.

The training included just a couple points:

1. Having a single adult rep on the ward council will provide a way to communicate single adult needs to the ward council.
2. Having a single adult rep on the ward council will force that rep to find out the single adult needs so that he/she can communicate them to the ward council.

I had a mini panic attack after that last one. I thought "Well. How the heck will that happen?" And then the lightning. It's a ward COUNCIL, Cecily. Not a ward 'report on your individual struggles to do your calling and then go away' meeting, which is kind of how I was looking at it. I instantly had some thoughts about how to enlist their help with this and start to get them thinking more often about the demographic I am supposed to represent. The mental load I was carrying immediately lightened and I started jotting down some plans. Get on the agenda. Have the council tell me the stories of everyone on the list, a few every meeting. Talk about them. Send meaningful looks to the missionaries. Plan some visits. Find some commonalities and address some needs.

It was during this meeting that I started to understand that my role is meant to have deeper results than I first realized. Some possibilities I thought of:
- My efforts to learn about the single adults in the setting of a ward council will get the single adults on our minds. Inspiration happens. We care for those who may need it, as a council. Slowly, but with purpose.
- The act of talking about single adults in ward council becomes much more routine, as does caring for them. As a ward, we become more effective and our 'rescue' efforts are more frequent and intentional.
- As thinking about, talking about, and working for the single adults in the ward becomes a more regular occurrence, the trends and overall needs we discover and the inspiration we receive as a ward council will eventually make their way to the stake level via the Bishop in his stake meetings and via me, on this stake committee. The stake presidency and high council come up with ways to address the larger picture. The stake presidency councils the stake committee on how to meaningfully, purposefully cares for the single adults, instead of just putting on a bunch of random firesides.

This was another part of tonight's training (my favorite part). Essentially, the handbook says "The ward takes care of the single adults. The stake may provide activities or whatever to help provide what the wards cannot." Meaning: Let's make the wards WORK first, take all the crazy planning off of the multi-stake/region committees and start at the base of this tower. I hate being on committees because planning activities and hoping people come to activities is one of worst things in the WORLD for me. I appreciated this bit of training that invited us to focus more on the ward level. Sure, that means activities and stuff for the ward, but at least I KNOW those folks. And the ward council will help me figure it out. Thank heavens for them.

And they really are the focus of my calling at this time. Someone in the meeting tonight mentioned a great talk from this last conference called "Rescue in Unity" which I then came home and read.

“And they [came] unto him, bringing one sick of the palsy, which was borne of four” (Mark 2:3).

The concept of a council of folks making it possible for someone to approach the Savior by working together was so important for me to learn. Elder Wong points out that these four may have been on assignment from their bishop, to rescue this man who could not rescue himself. They toiled and worked and met some serious obstacles. They eventually had to lower him to the Savior from the ceiling! And then at the end, after all their work and toil:

“When Jesus saw their faith, he said unto the sick of the palsy, Son, thy sins be forgiven thee” (Mark 2:5)

Because of their faith. Those four. That council. What an amazing thought. Part of me gets anxious at the possibility that I can affect someone's chance to approach or return to the Savior (whether for good or for ill) but I need to remember that I'm part of something bigger.  I'm not alone. I'm part of this council and the Lord will accept my offering, however small or large. What a relief.

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