A powerful scripture story for all of us to reflect upon takes place on the shores of the sea of Tiberius when the resurrected Lord comes to visit his apostles. Here, Christs asks Peter a question we should all ask ourselves: “Do you love me?” Peter replies in the affirmative, to which Christ responds: “Feed my sheep.” Christ asks this question of him two more times, stressing the importance of the question and, even more so, of what Peter is to do if he does, in fact, love the Lord,
When Jon and I were engaged I wanted to get something inscribed on the inside of his ring. I pondered on what Jon and I both wanted from our marriage and a way that I could put it down in 25 characters or less. When I did, I came to the conclusion that what Jon and I wanted from our marriage more than anything was a greater capacity to love and serve the Lord. The story I just told above came to mind, and so I inscribed the following on the inside of his ring: “Let us feed His sheep.”
It’s three years later and our wish is still the same. Our lives have been blessed with so much joy because of the gospel and so we can’t imagine anything better than being able to share that joy with others. We do not have it all figured out yet—there is still much we have to learn—but I hope it can be said of these past three years that we’ve accomplished a little good and shared a little of that joy. Even more, I hope it will be said of all the years to come that we continued on this path of lifting others—especially our own family and each other—and bringing them unto Christ.
Starting yesterday, the Lord has blessed Jon and I with a new way to do this--Jon got called to be the bishop of our ward! For those of you unfamiliar with the workings of an LDS congregation, about every five years or so the Lord calls, through revelation, a new member of the ward to serve as the bishop of that area. Bishops don't get any monetary pay for their service, though I hear that the blessings received for the time they sacrifice are quite fantastic. As the bishop, Jon will be called upon to oversee the logistical day to day functioning of the ward--including Sunday meetings and weekday activities--as well as counseling with individuals to help them and their families with their needs.
(For more information about bishops, click here).
We feel excited and overwhelmed and intimidated and at peace with this new opportunity all at the same time. We know Jon is very young to be called as a bishop, and being that we just moved into our ward, we still don't know a lot of the congregation. However, we do know that this call has come from God. We see His hand in preparing Jon for the call along with leading us to purchase a home within the ward boundaries. I know that Jon is extremely young to be taking on such a huge responsibility, but I know that he can do it. Jon is by no means perfect, but there is only one person who ever was, and Jon is very well acquainted with that one person and I know that he will call upon Him for help.
Jon and I are committed to helping each other and those in our ward because we not only love these people, we love the Lord. And as always, the Lord loves and is committed to each one of us. Together, we all--Jon, ward members, myself, and the Lord--will be able to magnify this call.
