If you saw me this week than you know that I have been released from my calling in Gospel Doctrine and have been called as the Primary Chorister. I am less than happy about the change so I have been griping quite a bit. I have to apologize for that. Two nights ago I prayed that I could know that there was a reason for the change and that I could feel better about it. Last night I got my answer.
I went to enrichment last night and while I was complaining about the new calling one of our lovely sister missionaries said, "That is one of the most difficult callings in the church, but it is also one of the most important. You are teaching the kids gospel truths through music and those songs will stay with them their entire lives." I appreciated the sentiment but I wasn't molified. So on the way home I did what I always do when I am upset or frustrated. I called my mom. After commiserating with me for a little bit my mom said, "These kids need you to share your love of music with them. Not all of them will respond the way Sam and James do, but some of them will. The important thing is that you try to teach them to love music and love the primary songs." I hung up with my mom and actually felt a little bit better. Maybe this calling won't be as painful as I thought...
Then I talked to John. I explained my reasons for hating the calling (all selfish reasons, I assure you) and he called me on it. We got in an argument and while I was downstairs trying to fight the urge to strangle him, he was upstairs finding a way to help me feel better. He pulled out the Ensign from September 2007 and opened it up to Elder Bednar's talk, "Seek Learning By Faith."
It answered all of my questions and calmed all of my fears. One particular quote that helped said, "Learning by faith requires spiritual, mental, and physical exertion and not just passive reception. It is in the sincerity and consistency of our faith-inspired action that we indicate to our Heavenly Father and His Son, Jesus Christ, our willingness to learn and receive instruction from the Holy Ghost... The learning I am describing reaches far beyond mere cognitive comprehension and the retaining and recalling of information. The type of learning to which I am referring causes us to put off the natural man (Mosiah 3:19), to change our hearts (Mosiah 5:2), to be converted to the Lord, amd to never fall away (Alma 23:6)."
John won the argument and in the sweetest possible way. I am so lucky to have such a great husband and I am so thankful that Heavenly Father answers my prayers multiple times so that when I am too stubborn to acknowledge the answer the first two times he knocks me over the head with a third.
6 comments:
You are SO lucky! I was primary choirster for 5 years and it has by far been my favorite callin and I'll tell you why.
1. You get to watch your kids during primary without having to deal with them.
2. It's like the entire primary is your class. Every week I would get at least 10 hugs from primary kids.
3. You can look totally goofy and people love it.
4. There is nothing better than having the whole primary cut off the ending note at the same time. My favorite song for that? My Dad, try it it's so fun!
5. No presidency meetings!
Erin, you will really love this calling. There are so many resources on the internet to help you out. My favorite was the yahoo group, you must sign up for it! Good luck and email me if you need any help!
My Mom is the primary chorister in her ward, and she was terrified too. She says now (just a few months later) that it is the best calling she has ever had. You will be so amazing at it! If you want to make things more interesting my mom goes to sugardoodle.net it has a lot of fun ideas. good luck!
Gotta love that love /hate relationship we have with our callings...
I've been leading the music in primary for the past 2 weeks because the hamatakes have been gone, and honestly if you EVER need a sub I would totally love to do it. :) Seriously, I've been having so much fun. I kind of wish it were my calling!! :)
I understand your concerns and reservations about this calling.I would be scared and annoyed by it as well. I do know however that you will be good at it. You are the only person I know that can calmly disciplin I have never heard you yell. You will do great in there.
Erin, I think that the Primary Chorister can totally change the entire mood in the Primary. Our chorister in our ward puts no prep work into the songs, doesn't know the songs she is trying to teach and is very sarcastic with the children, the children know she isn't prepared. The Spirit in Primary is totally different when we have a substitue chorister that is prepared and ready to teach the kids the Spirit. You will do a great job and I think you will love it. I would love to be Primary chorister becasue of all the fun things you can do and you get to teach the gospel through music which is awesome, it is how I feel the Spirit the easiest, especially through children singing. If only I had a musical bone in my body I might be Primary chorister some day. You'll be great!
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