Service may be more than you had considered

In our church, we try to give a lot of service. It may consist of taking in a meal, watching a child, cleaning someone's house, or helping someone move. We often pray for someone going through a hard time or add their name to the prayer roll at the temple so they can benefit from many people praying for them. In my service, I have an opportunity to teach regularly. I give my lesson twice-once to a group of women in the Pioneers Home, and also the group of women who meet in our church building. Most of the time, I give it first at church, then at the home. This week, it will be the other way around.

We serve for many reasons, but primarily in a effort to grow closer to and more like the Savior, Jesus Christ. Service helps us show our empathy and compassion for others. Our church just expects it.

There are always opportunities to serve. However, as I prepared my lesson, came to a realization that we have a service opportunity every time we attend church or school, and in many other settings. We have an opportunity to serve those who teach or speak to us. This does not necessarily require that we be physically fit. We simply must be engaged.

In the LDS church, two members of the congregation are usually assigned to provide the sermon or message to the congregation in any particular week. This assignment changes weekly, so over the course of time, almost every adult has the opportunity to preach to us. That being the case, as you might guess, some speakers are better than others. Some are wonderful. Some are terrified. Yet all have the opportunity to serve us in the message they prepare. The same is also true of our teachers. They are lay members of the congregation who do their best. However, even as they serve us, we can serve them.

Many of our leaders have spoken on the subject of our responsibility as listeners to support the speaker or the teacher. In a class, that means participating, sharing the insights that occur because of how the lesson applies to different situations that have occurred in our own lives. It means coming prepared to participate, not just to be entertained.

In the context of listening to a speaker, we rarely have to actively participate. However, we have an active responsibility to pray for the speaker and prepare our own minds to receive the message that has been prepared. If we do our part, even if the speaker was not one of the best, we still have a good experience and learn.

Before preparing for this lesson, I had never really considered how my prayers and active listening to a speaker might constitute service. However, I can now see that by listening actively and praying for them, I enable them to better deliver their message. The prayers might help them better deliver it to others, but will definitely help them better deliver it to me. So, if I do what I should, I allow the speaker to better serve me, which also allows me to serve that speaker.

It helps us to grow if we can offer a speaker or teacher respect, our prayers for their message, and our attention. Even if it is in a setting where we disagree with the message being delivered, we can still pray and serve them. Perhaps, if we pray that their message will be delivered clearly and clearly understood, rather than convincing the audience of the truth of the message, that clarity might do the opposite. In this climate of rhetoric, that might be a service to all who hear although the speaker would not necessarily enjoy that. However, I believe that all of our actions that tend to help others to understand truth and do good are important acts of service. If I am correct, and this post has caused you to think about how you might service through your thoughts and prayers, then even this post has performed an act of service.