Be thou humble in thy weakness, and the Lord thy God shall lead thee, Shall lead thee by the hand and give the answer to thy prayers. Be thou humble in thy pleading and the Lord thy God shall bless thee, Shall Bless thee with a sweet and calm assurance that he cares.
Be thou humble in thy calling, and the Lord thy God shall teach tee to serve his children gladly with a pure and gentle love. Be thou humble in thy longing, and the Lord thy God shall take thee, Shall take thee home at last to ever dwell with him above. Hymns #130
I have been pondering humility quite a bit this past week. I have a calling in The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. A calling is essentially a request from Heavenly Father, through His servants on earth, to serve other members of the church in a specific manner. My calling is enrichment leader for the women’s organization, the Relief Society. As enrichment leader it is my job to put together enriching and gospel-centered activities for the women in my area, church member and nonmember alike. I take this responsibility seriously and receive a lot of joy from my service. It is, however, easy to get caught up in the logistics and my part in this service and forget the most important part. I am working to become an instrument of the Lord: to share His gospel and His spirit.
This was my problem. As I worked on the latest event I found myself subtly changing from the humble servant, trying to do His will to the proud woman who wants things to be perfect. In other words, wanting things to go the way I thought they should rather than listening quietly to hear how He wanted things to go.
Humility is a willingness within us to look to Heavenly Father for guidance and direction in every aspect of our lives. With humility we recognize that who we are, our blessing and talents, our daily support comes from a divine source. We are commissioned with the blessings we have, to see what we will do with them, not to place ourselves above others, or above a need for Him in our lives. It is being teachable and open to the Spirit, allowing it to take the lead in our lives.
Denying ourselves the blessing of humility puts the Lord in a difficult position. How can He use your hands to serve and bless others if you are not willing to acknowledge His ability to do so?
As with most things, when we turn away from the Lord our lives tend toward chaos rather than peace. Thus was the start of my week. Chaos was the reigning element of my life. Things I’d planned for so carefully were falling apart all around me and I was a mess. This situation forced humility back upon me. Fortunately my pride wasn’t so hardened that I couldn’t remember who I was trying to serve. If I wanted to salvage the event I needed to turn it back over to who it belonged to in the first place: The Lord.
Enrichment evening happened last night. Was it perfect? No. Did it go exactly as I wanted it to? No. Did it go the way the Lord wanted it to? Yes. Were lives touched and testimonies of Christ strengthened? Definitely.
Be thou humble and the Lord thy God shall lead thee and give thee answers to thy prayers.
