Challenge #15—Called to Serve

Happy New Year!  The first LDS Challenge for the year is here today!  If you’re not a regular over at the original This Is Me Challenge, you may want to check out this week’s challenge to help you set your goals this year!  (I even put a quote from General Conference in there!)
Now to this challenge…

What Church callings have you had so far?

I thought it’d be good to record the Church callings I’ve had so far, because as time goes on, it’s getting more and more difficult to recall all of them.  Plus someday I’m sure my kids will have fun looking at my list.  I guess this is something you can update every few years too.

Of course you can do this challenge many ways:  write it in your journal, type it up on your computer, make a scrapbook layout, do a video or voice recording, or whatever you like!

I did something for today that I’ve never done on the TIMC LDS blog—a Fast Form!  If you’re a TIMC fan, you know that I’ve been making these to help you record your info in record time.  And this year, I decided I need to put a little more gusto into this blog.  

Here’s what the Fast Form looks like.  You can click on the picture to download one for yourself. (Then you can print it and write in the answers or type on it.) The only thing I ask if you decide to download freebies, is that you please become a follower of the TIMC-LDS blog over on the right (or on the top bar).  That’s not too steep of a price, right? 



I love the Fast Forms because it’s how I get my hubby to do the challenges!
Also, just for a happy new year present, you can download a 12x12 digital version of the blue “Called to Serve” paper by clicking on it. 



It’s simple, but you can use it to help  you make pages about your callings or use it for missionary layouts.  (Speaking of missionary stuff, I’ve got some BIG exciting news…not quite ready yet, but REALLY soon, like next week!)

Now I challenge you to record your Church callings!

Gifts to Jesus

We did something Monday night for FHE that turned out so well, I thought I’d share it with you! 

In Church on Sunday, a sister in our Ward talked about how her dad wrapped a box up at Christmas time, and whenever the kids did something Christ-like, they would write it on a paper and put it into the present for Jesus. 

Well, I thought this sounded fabulous, and decided to make it a new Christmas tradition in our home!

I found a box that already had a small opening in the bottom, taped up the top, wrapped it really pretty, then cut the paper where the small opening was.  Then I wrote “To Jesus” on the top, and taped a pass-along card that has baby Jesus on it.  (I couldn’t find a small picture of Jesus, and my kids are always snatching the cards at Church.) 

I also cut 3 or 4 blank pieces of paper into rectangles (2 1/2 inches by 4 1/4), put them along with a couple of pens into a small can I had.  I tied a big red bow on it for fun.

 To start the lesson, I had my two older boys read the quote by President Monson that says, “What will you and I give for Christmas this year?  Let us in our lives give to our Lord and Savior the gift of gratitude by living his teachings and following in His footsteps.” (I printed off the free quote found on Becky Higgins’ blog—go about half way down the page and look on the right side bar for it.)

We then talked about what that meant in little kid terms, “What IS the best thing YOU can give for Christmas?, “What is the gift of gratitude?”,  “What are some of the things that Jesus taught us?”, “What are some things we can give to Jesus this year for Christmas?”. 

After we talked about what the quote meant, I showed the kids the present I had made, explained what we were going to be doing, and then showed them the can and they loved the idea!!!  We made the rule that we can fill out a paper for something you did for someone else, or if someone does something for you.

A few days later, we are hearing a lot of, “Mom, I did_____, can I fill out a paper?”, or “_____ did ______ for me, can I write that down?”.  Even my 2 year old twins love doing this!  When I see them do something nice for someone, I tell them thank you and say that we should write it and give it to Jesus.  They run to the box and love to put their paper in! 

It’s even helping me too…today when I got stuck in line at the store with a new cashier who was going SLOW, I decided I’d be patient instead of getting all annoyed that I got in the slow line.  And yes, I wrote that down and gave it to Jesus! 

I’m seriously loving this, and so excited to make it a yearly tradition.  I’m planning on doing something with the papers—either keeping them and putting them in something, taking pictures of them, or at least typing up our gifts to Christ.  I think it will be so fun to look back on our gifts to Jesus Christ!

Challenge #12—Sharing Yourself

In the regular This Is Me Challenge, I have team members and have to schedule out the challenges in advance…but here I don’t, so even when I schedule out the challenges, I have the flexibility to change the challenge at the last minute!  This is good because I just read this post and felt inspired that I needed to use this challenge instead of the one I planned. 

When have you helped brighten someone’s day, and how did it make you feel?

It may sound a bit conceited at first, but as I thought about it, isn’t it okay to record that you’re a compassionate person and that serving and helping makes you feel good inside?   Anyway, those were my thoughts…

You could list a few nice things you’ve done for others and write how you felt.  You can focus on just one nice thing and give details about it and how it helped you be better.  Write about how someone helping you helped you realize how you could help others.  You can even record some goals to do better at helping others in a specific way (like Jocelyn mentions on her post linked above). 

_____________
So here’s my little story…I decided to focus on how making some new friends as an adult has helped me, and how that inspired me to do the same things for others.  I know this sounds a little conceited…but I guess it’s good to sometimes give yourself a little credit, right?

Last February I was unexpectedly invited by a complete stranger in another Ward to come to her house to exercise with a bunch of other young moms.  (We had a mutual Facebook friend.)  I was actually quite nervous to go exercise at a stranger’s house with a bunch of people I didn’t even know.  When I showed up, the gals were all so nice to me and I made instant friends. 

Ever since I’d become a mother, I’d never really had any friends that I did things with—we’d moved and my family was all that mattered.  I'd never made time for others. 

That first day I was there exercising, I was invited to go to another gals house for lunch.  I met a few more gals from their Ward and made even more friends.  These gals love to do things together and are always willing to invite any newcomers.  I have been invited to do many things with these gals, and I have really enjoyed having friends to do things with once again!  Sometimes we did things during the day and let all the kids play, and other times we’ve done things in the evenings without kiddos.  It has helped me become a better mother to have time away from the kids, to see examples of other good mothers, to form friendships with people I can talk to about things, and has also helped my boys learn to make new friends. 

Because of my new friends examples, I’ve realized that my neighborhood is in need of the same type of friendships. (As far as I knew no one in my Ward ever did things like that—there was a lack of social gatherings—but then again maybe I just wasn’t invited. )I’ve had a few little get-togethers, and I even hosted a lunch this afternoon with some of the gals in the neighborhood. 

One friend said to me the other day, “You are so good, because we all think we should do more of these types of things, but you’re the only one who actually does them.”  After the lunch, a bunch of my friends mentioned how glad they were to get out of the house and do something with someone!  (We are all stay-at-home mom’s, so we don’t get to socialize much, other than limited time at Church.) 

It has made me feel good that these gals in my neighborhood are starting to form friendships—friendships that will hopefully last a lifetime!  I know I never would have ever thought about hosting these little get-togethers if is wasn’t for that one little invitation and some of my new friends who’ve been such good examples to me!