Lesson Learned

Last night I had an experience that touched my heart. One where I felt like I had tapped into the real me. Do you ever have those experiences? Where you're doing something good and you think, "This is the real me. This is the me I want to be all the time"?

For months, our relief society president has asked for volunteers to visit an elderly man, who is deaf, who recently lost his wife. I never once volunteered to go. I guess I assumed that the people who knew sign language would be better, or that enough people were volunteering I wasn't needed. It wasn't until I was personally asked that I agreed. How selfish is that?

Last night we made our visit. Turns out this man lives just a block away from us. He enjoys children and loved holding and watching Charlie. We wrote messages back and forth on a notepad. He even read our lips well enough that we didn't always have to write to communicate.
We talked about his wife, how families are forever, Charlie and things we enjoyed doing.

As I looked around his home, I got teary eyed thinking that one day this may be Tony or I. Eventually one of us will be gone. We'll probably have pictures of each other scattered all over. I hope someone will come visit he or I.

We had a relief society activity that night so I went to that afterward. A thought was shared about service and this quote was passed out:

"I am confident it is the intention of each member of the Church to serve and to help those in need. At baptism we covenanted to "bear one another's burdens, that they may be light." How many times has your heart been touched as you have witnessed the need of another? How often have you intended to be the one to help? And yet how often has day-to-day living interfered and you've left it for other to help, feeling that "oh, surely someone will take care of that need."

We become so caught up in the busyness of our lives. Were we to step back, however, and take a good look at what we're doing, we may find that we have immersed ourselves in the "thick of thin things." In other words, too often we spend most of our time taking care of the things which do not really matter much at all in the grand scheme of things, neglecting those more important causes." -President Monson

I think it's easy to find our cluster of friends and serve within that small group, while unintentionally closing our eyes to the needs that are around us.

Last night was a testimony growing experience where I re-learned that everyone is needed. I hope I don't have to keep learning this lesson over and over. It was a wonderful night where I felt like as a family, we grew together and for myself, I saw the person I want to be all the time.