Weekly Email - 9/20/21
I'm gonna try to get back on track and write you weekly. I'm targeting Sunday evening so that you can read it Monday morning on your p-day, so I am only a few days behind this week – your p-day is on Wed right now anyway, so it's all messed up.
This Sunday, some good messages were shared, and they stand out in my mind right now because of where we are in our lives. For the younger kids, they've started school up again and are playing sports. Elder Salsa is at the start of his mission. My work group is approaching evaluation time and planning for next year. And the older girls and their husbands are in a critical time in their lives as well. One of the speakers talked about priorities and about the natural man.
One quote that was shared was something to this effect: "No man shall say it is simply in my nature." The speaker was talking about how our religion should challenge us to grow and change. That simply accepting your faults without accepting the need for change puts us into a state of complacency. This is what is meant by the phrase that the natural man is an enemy to God. Not that God doesn't love us, or that he doesn't love us when we falter. In fact, he loves us so much that he gave us his only begotten son so that we could overcome our frailties. What it means is that if we decide to remain natural, carnal, self-indulgent, or complacent, that we will never grow and become like him.
I agree that we sometimes are too hard on ourselves as we strive for perfection. But we do need to take an inventory sometimes to see where we are. The following exercise was suggested:
1. Write down your priorities – most to least important
2. Ask someone else (spouse, friend, kids, co-worker) to write down what they think your priorities are
3. Spend one week documenting the # of hours you spend in each of your priority categories
You might be surprised what you find. For some, they find that they spend zero hours in what they would call their #1 priority and that is a little disturbing to think. When I was called to be a counsellor in the Bishopric, President Weber told me that my priorities needed to be the following:
1. My relationship with my Father in Heaven
2. My relationship with my Spouse
3. My relationship with my Children
4. My relationship with my Employer
5. My relationship with my Calling
He said he experienced his greatest challenges when his priorities were out of whack. He also shared this, "Bishop, you can't do everything. You have to delegate or let things slip." And I might have taken advantage of that a time or two.
My point is this, as a missionary, your relationship with your companion will not be the best unless you have a good relationship with your Father in Heaven. (And I guess how you consider your companion (spouse, employer, calling) will determine what priority you give them. I am thinking along the lines of calling. The point is that there is a purposeful hierarchy to this list, and you should be working to ensure your priorities are solid.
Speaking Spanish will be challenging at times, but I promise you will be blessed with the gift of tongues if you have your priorities squared away and you are putting in the effort that is required.
I find myself in the position, due to my job, of being the person who is telling my employees what their priorities should be and correcting them if they are off base. I don't think I should have to do this, but it is clear that some of my team members think some things are more important than others. It is also important to be clear, direct, and specific in my conversations with them about expectations. It is painful when they work really hard a something that isn't even on my list of things I need completed. This is important in a missionary companionship and in a marriage relationship. If expectations are shared and agreed upon, it feels like you are working together on something.
The last thing I'll share is that we sang hymn 131 – More holiness give Me as our intermediate hymn and I realized how much I love it's message. It is a prayer to our Father in Heaven to provide us with some of the most important things we need to become perfected in Christ. I love the flow of the song and the underlying text. I am so glad that we are singing in church again – we have been doing so for a few months now, but song is so important to worship in my mind and I've missed some of the hymns. I'll quote the text below as I find it incredibly instructive:
1. More holiness give me,
More strivings within,
More patience in suff'ring,
More sorrow for sin,
More faith in my Savior,
More sense of his care,
More joy in his service,
More purpose in prayer.
2. More gratitude give me,
More trust in the Lord,
More pride in his glory,
More hope in his word,
More tears for his sorrows,
More pain at his grief,
More meekness in trial,
More praise for relief.
3. More purity give me,
More strength to o'ercome,
More freedom from earth-stains,
More longing for home.
More fit for the kingdom,
More used would I be,
More blessed and holy—
More, Savior, like thee.
What we all really want is to be more like our Savior, and this hymn illustrates that desire like no other to me.
I love you and am proud of you. I appreciate your dedication to your learning environment – even if our home is far from the MTC environment that you imagined. You are showing a great example to your siblings by getting up and going to be on time and to sticking to the expectations associated with missionary attire. You have been bold and direct with those who have asked you questions about your name tag and the work you are doing. Thank you for that.
Again, I love you. Have a great week!
Love, Dad
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