Take Them With You

When my husband was stationed in Washington my ward had a fifth Sunday lesson that was dedicated to, "how to make our sacrament meetings more reverent." Which inevitably devolved into, "how do we keep all these kids quiet?"

Having, at the time, three kids under the age of 4, I felt a little attacked. So I sank further into my seat in the back, wondering if we should bother to ever sit in the chapel at all, when a sister raised her hand and made a comment that has stuck with me ever since.

"I'm a late in life convert, and I have six kids. Something I have noticed that is unique to our church is that we meet as families. A lot of other churches will have child care for their kids during their main meetings. But we don't. We meet as families. Because Heavenly Father wants our kids here, in sacrament."

Fast forward a few years to Bishop Dusbabek calling me into his office and extending to me the calling of Relief Society President. Sisters you don't know how badly I wanted to laugh. Seriously? Me? Are you crazy?

I knew when I left that office that this was the right calling for me but being human, I spent the next week making a list of every reason why I shouldn't take the calling and calling everyone who would listen to discuss it.

I whined to my mother, "I mean I have four kids, what am I suppose to do with them when I have to meet with sisters and stuff?"

I can imagine my mom shrugging as she said, "Take them with you."

This has become as poignant a statement to me as that sisters in Washington was. 

"Heavenly Father wants them here." 

"Take them with you."

And I have. You know what? It's worked. More than worked. When I tell the kids to get in the car because I have to drop someone's birthday chocolate they ask who. And if it's someone they know they demand the right to take it to them. Never mind that it was suppose to be from the relief society. They want these sisters to know they love them too.

When I told my husband yesterday that I was headed to the church to do the bulletin board my six year old jumped up and said, "Mom your going to decorate the board? Can I come? Please? I'm a good decorator." It was fun! We stopped by the gas station and got a coke and some m&ms and had an amazing time decorating together.

When I had to take a meal to a sister and was out of ideas on what to feed my own family, I realized that this sister had a kid my son's age. I stopped the cart in the store and asked him, "Hey what does this kid like?" 

Logan shrugged. "I don't know. He eats a lot of this. Oh and I think he's allergic to this." He lead me into the fruit section of Costco and that was it. It ended up being my ten year old son walking me through the store and picking out food. And it was he who helped me carry things to the door.

We are a church for families. We don't have to do any part of this alone. We're not suppose too. And yes our bulletin board has a LOT more heart stickers than I had planned. And no I had not planned on getting the pan of brownies for the sister who needed dinner. And our Sacrament meeting, with kids, will never be the quiet we experience in the temple.

But Heavenly Father wants them there; and he wants us there with them
. We should take them with us. We may have been called, but it is our families together that serve.