Sunday Scribble - July 8

Most people say "My dog ate my homework."  Mine actually did!  My notes from Sunday ended up in the dog's water dish, and then torn to shreds.  So, no announcements are available, but the lesson was wonderful, as usual.

 
Thank goodness for the church website!  Amber Molina gave a wonderful lesson called "An Enthusiastic Desire to Share the Gospel." 

A close friend of George Albert Smith wrote: “President George Albert Smith is a natural missionary. From his youth he has had an ardent desire to share the teachings of the gospel with his fellow men, to make known to ‘the sons and daughters of God,’ all of whom he considers to be his brothers and sisters, the truths that were revealed to the Prophet Joseph Smith...  In my entire acquaintance with President Smith, which has extended more than forty years, I have learned that wherever he is, he is first and foremost a missionary for the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints."

Why is it that we don't always show much enthusiasm when it comes to being a missionary?  When Sisters and Elders are set apart as full-time missionaries, they often receive that enthusiasm as part of the call.  Shouldn't we be as excited about our business as they are?

I've often notice that enthusiasm with new converts.  Think: Sarah Grembowski.  Sarah is about the most enthusiastic person I know, and she her excitement about the gospel and what it has done for her is evident to everyone around her. 

Perhaps for the rest of us who have been in the church our entire lives or for a long time, like all new things, the shiny-ness (and our enthusiasm) wears off, and the gospel becomes routine.  What a shame!  Pres. G.A. Smith: "There is a real famine in the world for the words of the Lord, and many honest souls are earnestly seeking to know what our Heavenly Father desires of them."

The gospel is a gift that should not be hidden in the back of a closet, but should be regifted often.  "When a man is sick, if he is our neighbor, we minister to him gladly; if there is a death in his family, we try to comfort him. But year in and year out we allow him to walk in paths that will destroy his opportunity for eternal life, we pass him by, as if he were a thing of naught."

"How happy it will make you, if when that time comes, when you stand in the presence of the great Judge to give an account of the few years of life that have been spent in mortality, if these our Father’s children that He loves as much as He loves us, standing by us, say, “Heavenly Father, it was this man, it was this woman who first brought to me the information of Thy glorious truth that provoked in me a desire to seek after Thee more fervently than I had done before. It was this man or this woman who did this blessed thing for me.”