How has service changed you?

It's been three months since we introduced our challenge.  Give a hug, pray for opportunities, send a note, do kind acts, and smile.  Have you seen a difference in your life?

I decided that I wanted to focus my acts of service on my family.  I have four teenagers in my home and sometimes it doesn't feel like there is a lot of love.  So I smiled, when I wanted to scowl, and I hugged, when I wanted to walk away.  I tried to do acts of service for them.  I sent them goofy text messages.  I admit, that there have been too many times that my thoughts ran along the line of, "All I do is serve them!  I cook, I do laundry, I clean, I chauffeur..."  I was going through the motions, but lacking true intent.  The smiles and the hugs went a long way towards helping me be less grumpy, but I didn't feel like I was really invested.

As I reviewed what I was doing, I realized that I was missing a piece.  I need to ask in prayer to be directed how I could serve. There is so much power in prayer.  As I asked my Heavenly Father how I could serve my family, I began to have increased understanding of how they were feeling.   I received promptings about when to talk to them and what to say.  I was humbled by Heavenly Father's love for my children and my husband, and how willing He was to help me help them.

I bear testimony that this is what it is about.  Heavenly Father wants, no needs, us to help others.  He loves them, but he relies on us to serve them. This knowledge continues to change me.  And, if you let it, it can change you.
Sis. Norris

Who Needs a Hug?

Here are a few fun facts about hugging that will help you as you reach your goal to hug daily.

* Hugging increases feelings of safety, security, trust, strength, healing, self worth, belonging, happiness and appreciation

* A hug encourages bonding by increasing the levels of oxytocin (a feel good hormone) in the body

* Studies show that IQ development is delayed in children who don’t receive hugs. Those that lack hugs start walking, talking and reading later

* According to a survey taken in America, marriages where hugging or touching are present, last longer than those without

* A brief hug with a friend is equivalent to 10 minutes of handholding and greatly reduces stress

* People crave 13 hugs a day – but most don’t receive this many :(

* A hug normally lasts 9.5 seconds

* On average, people spend an hour a month, hugging

* As hugging increases oxytocin and reduces cortisol (a stress hormone) – it leads us to a 
healthy heart and lower blood pressure

* Hugs also lower our heart rate, promoting a calming effect

* Full body hugs stimulate the nervous system

* Hugs decrease the feeling of loneliness, helps up combat fear, increases self-esteem, affirms relationships, defuses tension and shows appreciation.

The first time I met my the woman who turned out to be mother-in-law she gave me a great big hug.  I didn't even even know this woman and she was giving me the biggest hug I'd ever had!  Can you imagine how welcome and valued I felt in her presence?  Since meeting her, I determined never to be selfish with my hugs.

How does hugging make you feel? How often do you hug someone? How often does someone hug you?

Love (and hugs),

Sister McDougal

Receiving

When we think of service we often think of things we can do for someone.  Whether it be something big like giving up a weekend night to babysit while a couple from your ward goes to the temple or something as simple as seeing someone come into class late and you motion for them to sit by you.  Both these and the countless other ways you all serve are simple ways that the Lord has prompted you to do His will.

We read in the New Testament in John 13: 12-14 the following:

12 So after he had washed their feet, and had taken his garments, and was set down again, he said unto them, Know ye what I have done to you?

13 Ye call me Master and Lord: and ye say well; for so I am.

14 If I then, your Lord and Master, have washed your feet; ye also ought to wash one another’s feet.

He is our perfect example, our exemplar.  We learn of him and how he served but do we often think of those he served?  I think I would feel like Peter did, initially refusing such an act.  Feeling like I was not worthy of the act and that I should be doing it for Him.  Sometimes we get a little too independent and forget that the other side of service is often more powerful than that of  the giving side.  In versus 5-8 we read:

5 After that he poureth water into a basin, and began to wash the disciples’ feet, and to wipe them with the towel wherewith he was girded.

6 Then cometh he to Simon Peter: and Peter saith unto him, Lord, dost thou wash my feet?

7 Jesus answered and said unto him, What I do thou knowest not now; but thou shalt know hereafter.

8 Peter saith unto him, Thou shalt never wash my feet. Jesus answered him, If I wash thee not, thou hast no part with me.

    

We are to serve but we are also expected to accept service from others.  During my early years of motherhood I was often left alone with my babies.  My husband was working and going to school full time then serving in capacities in the church that often left me alone with my little ones on the pews.  I was proud and stubborn and insistent that I could do it by myself.  Accepting help would be a sign of weakness, a trait that I went to great measures to hide.  A few years passed and a couple more babies came and with these changes also came a change in the dynamic of my home.  The reasons I would be sitting alone with my small children on the pews were now different, and much more difficult than I ever could have imagined.  I needed to make a choice.  Would I allow Satan to come in and exacerbate my feelings of loneliness?  Or would I let those loving, wonderful ward members who were so willing to step in and help at a moments notice into my life?

Those ward members are now amongst my best friends, counted as family even though my "real" family is just around the corner.  They are my angels, having worked as His hands.  When I think of my ward family this quote always comes to mind.   

...Chríst — for Christ plays in ten thousand places,

Lovely in limbs, and lovely in eyes not his

To the Father through the features of men's faces. 

 By Gerard Manley Hopkins in "As Kingfishers Catch Fire" 

Through them, I now feel closer to Him and want to serve in the way He would have me.  That is my prayer for all of you, that you will know Him by serving His children and allowing others to serve you.  

-Sis. Carlile

Simple Service

I had just graduated from Ricks College (Yes, I’m that old!) and I had just moved back home.  I was working and getting ready to start another program in college when I began attending a singles ward with one of my friends. I didn’t know anyone besides my one friend in this ward.  I can be pretty outgoing when I know people, but it’s hard for me to be outgoing when everyone is new.  One of the the first few weeks I was there, I had a bishop’s interview scheduled after church.  Life was complicated and hard, and I was feeling alone and insecure.  While I was waiting for my interview, the church halls were nearly empty and I was sitting all alone.  From the corner of my eye, I noticed this beautiful girl that I recognized from my ward, coming my way.  She sat down next to me and introduced herself.  Her name was Jayne and she was so sweet and friendly.  I remember feeling so surprised that she was taking the time to talk to me.  Not only that, but she invited me to go out with her and a bunch of her friends in the coming week.  Jayne and I ended up becoming good friends.  Jayne didn’t know my circumstances that day.  She didn’t know I was struggling or feeling alone.  For all she knew, she was just introducing herself to someone new.  Jayne made a huge impact on me that day.  18 years later, it still stands out as one of the nicest things someone has done for me.

I have been lucky enough to be blessed with 4 sisters.  We love being together and try to get together as often as we can.  Although we’re super close, we tend to share only the good things going on in our lives, and we don’t usually want to burden each other with all the hard stuff.  On this particular day, we were meeting for lunch.  At this time in my life, I was carrying a HUGE burden, and one no one knew anything about my circumstances.  We’d all gotten pretty good at hiding the trials we were dealing with, and that was my intention that day.  We went to lunch, we talked, and we laughed a ton, and everything was normal.  I came home and didn’t think another thing about lunch until a few hours later when I got a text from one of my sisters and it simply said, “Are you ok?”  At first I was confused.  I hadn’t said anything.  I had acted normal.  I had even laughed with them. How did she know things were not ok?  My first instinct was to reply back “yes, of course”, but I desperately needed an outlet.  I needed someone to talk to.  I needed someone to know what I was going through, not because she could fix my situation, but so someone could know what I was dealing with.  I had felt so alone carrying this all by myself.  So, I told her, “No. I’m not ok.” And I proceeded to tell her everything I had been keeping in for so long.  She wasn’t able to fix anything, but she listened to me and that was all I needed right then.  In that simple act, she lifted my burden so I could keep going.

In both of these incidences, I believe these women acted on the spirit…a simple whisper of “Go introduce yourself”, and “Ask if she is ok.”  Such simple simple things, but to me, they meant SO much.  In Matthew 25:40, a scripture we have heard since we were little, “Verily, I say unto you, Inasmuch as ye have done it unto one of the least of these my brethren, ye have done it unto me.” Neither of these women came and did my house work.  They didn’t mow my lawn, make me dinner, babysit my kids, or do my laundry.  They cared…pure and simple.  They followed the spirit, and by doing that I knew my savior was aware of me. 

We all have the capacity to love.  Like so many of the others who have already posted before me, it really is the simple things… the smile, an invitation to sit by someone, talking to someone who is all alone, kind words.  We do not need to move mountains to have a huge impact on someone’s life.  All we have to do is truly care for someone.  In loving others, we can help them feel how much their Heavenly Father truly cares about and loves them.

Sis. Aguirre

 He Knows His Children, Be His Hands

The Savior said “If any man will come after me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross, and follow me. For whosoever will save his life shall lose it: and whosoever will lose his life for my sake shall find it.” (Matthew 16:24–25)

One of the things that I am most amazed by is the knowledge that Heavenly Father has about each of His children and our needs. He knows what we need, who to send in our times of trial, and the precise time that we need them. I love that through small and simple things, tiny acts of service, gifts of time, we can lead others to Him. Our Heavenly Father knows that the things required of us are not always convenient, easy, or even within our scope of experience but, He will strengthen and prepare us to serve those who have need of our love.

In my life I have had the ability and privilege to see Christ’s love and the atonement in action. I have watched it demonstrated through the service that he calls us to do and the promptings he gives us to share and serve. I have put “important” things aside to follow a prompting from the spirit in caring for and lifting others. Though I remember clearly the blessings I received and the experiences I’ve had, as well as the continuing heartfelt friendships I have forged through these experiences, I can not remember one of the “important” things that I set aside to follow His promptings.

When we are His Hands, share His love and do His will, he not only blesses those that we help but increases our testimony and blesses our lives abundantly. As you serve, feel His love for those around you and let your heart be opened and changed. The spirit will testify of truth and the Divinity of our Savior.

Love,

Sister Olson