Two lessons today on service.
Sunday School lesson was "As I Have Loved You" (Luke 22 and John 13-15). Discussed Christ washing the apostles feet. Teaching them to follow his example. Teaching us that leaders should be servants.
This was followed up in Relief Society by a lesson on service. For part of it we discussed what does service look like. Most of our discussion was on how service made us feel. Both giving and receiving. The consensus seemed to be that it was sometimes more difficult to receive.
I understand that. Our society greatly values independence. It is one of our founding principles. Self-reliance is good. What we tend to miss is that we actually are not alone. Heavenly Father gave us each other. We serve and are served by our fellow beings.
The past few years have been not fun for our family. The financial strains have been immense. That certainly has not been our only struggle, but maybe the most significant. We have been the recipients of so much love and support from family, friends, church. We really and truly could not have made it to this point on our own.
Maybe that is the great lesson. Learning to lean on the Savior. Learning to accept service, especially the greatest of all. The atonement. Christ did for us what we could not possibly could do for ourselves. We can't do it on our own. The Monzingo family could not have made it without help. That seems to be what I have needed to learn. We didn't pull ourselves up by our bootstraps. Beyond anything that we have ever deserved we have been the recipients of abundant blessings.
How grateful I am to a Heavenly Father that loves me. He loves me in my imperfections. He blesses me. Not because of anything that I have earned. He blesses me just because He loves me.
How absolutely wonderful is that?
