Serving HERE

YOU ARE HERE!

Think of all the place you see this phrase....It's everywhere.

We did a brainstorming activity to come up with all the places we are each day:

Home

Church

Work

School

Places in the community

We took in one more step and identified all the people who are HERE with us:

Family

Friends

Neighbors

Strangers

Familiar community members we see weekly

Elderly

Children

Co-workers

Employer

We live HERE - in the center of our lives.

There are many opportunities around us to offer service to others.

And we depend on others for help all of our lives.

Through service we increase our ability to love, we become less selfish, and helping others helps us see our own problems in the proper perspective. Jesus commanded us to serve all people, not just the ones we enjoy being around. He is our perfect example.

Pres. Kimball said, “God does notice us, and he watches over us. But it is usually through another person that he meets our needs.”

Types of service range from smiling and saying hi, to risking your life to save another. If you ever wonder who you can serve or where to serve, look around!

We ended the class listening to a SONG

by Hilary Weeks, titled "Not Too Far From Here"

Prioritizing Essential Moments

What things make us go? What keeps you busy during the day or the week?

Do you feel like you are juggling too many things at once?

Prioritizing our time, and dealing with the essentials

was a topic for a lesson I recently taught.

I had about 30 balloons blown up and tied.

I wrote suggestions of things that keep us busy on each balloon and threw them in the air.

The class was instructed to keep them up in the air.

Suggestions for the balloons from the class included:

Driving kids all over the city

Cleaning the house: laundry, vacuuming, dishes,

More laundry, more dishes, picking up clutter

Grocery shopping

Working

Helping a friend

Running errands for husbands

I continued adding more balloons...

The class did a pretty good job, but I did notice a few landing on the ground.

WE CAN'T KEEP EVERYTHING GOING ALL AT ONCE!

I think I got that point across. It was a great visual.

We then tried to think of things that cause us to slow down from our frantic pace.

Interestingly, we could only come up with a few:

Getting sick

Having a baby

Going on vacation

Taking care of someone else who might be sick

Pure exhaustion and/or having a mental breakdown from trying to keep up.

CONCLUSION: We must make time to slow down.

We then discussed the four key relationships that are worthy of our time:

Our relationship with God

Our relationships with our family members

Our relationships with our fellow men, friends

Developing good feelings about ourselves

*********

M. RUSSELL BALLARD APRIL, 1987 - "The night before my surgery, my doctors talked about the possibility of cancer. When I was left alone, my mind filled with thoughts of my family and of my ministry... I realized that I needed to rearrange some of my priorities to accomplish the things that matter most to me. Sometimes we need a personal crisis to reinforce in our minds what we really value and cherish. The scriptures are filled with examples of people facing crises before learning how to better serve God and others. Perhaps if you, too, search your hearts and courageously assess the priorities in your life, you may discover, as I did, that you need a better balance among your priorities."

**********

"Many times we insist on having all the best things because that's the only way we can ensure 'quality of life' for ourselves. I can neglect myself in every other way, but if I have the best watch or pocketbook or car or square footage, I get to tell myself I'm the best and how much I deserve to have even more of the best. What I know for sure: Having the best things is no substitute for having the best life.- Oprah