Yesterday I snuck/sneaked away from primary to attend Relief Society. The teacher quoted Sister Joann Randall and a talk she gave in General Conference back in October of 1981. Sister Randall and her family had just moved into a new community. After living there only one month, she was put on complete bed rest for two months while she was expecting her eighth baby. Her first thought was, "We can handle this. We don't need any help. The children are use to helping and have regular jobs around the house." They soon came to realize that they did need help. She says:
"Even after years of teaching and hearing lessons on serving others and accepting service, we found that to actually let someone help us was difficult to do. But, as we allowed them to help us, we soon found our hearts full of thanks for their thoughtfulness.
The phrase “Call me if I can do anything” took on new meaning. We learned that you will rarely take someone up on such an offer. Instead, we witnessed people who came by saying, “Is it the kitchen you want cleaned, or would you rather have me vacuum?” Many were good examples to us as they not only thought of helpful things to do, but did them."
This lesson was perfect! I've been thinking about this exact thing lately. Two weeks ago my husband had a much needed knee surgery. Days before the surgery we had neighbors, friends, and ward members calling us offering to help. Just like Sister Randall my first thought was "No thanks, we can handle this." Some said, "Ok, Call me if you need anything." Others didn't listen and said "I'm bringing you dinner, or I'm picking your kids up from school." Even though it was difficult to let others do things for us, these acts of service literally saved me during these busy days of trying to take care of Clint while juggling 6 kids.
I use to be a "Call me if you need anything" person. After this experience, I've learned to be an "I'm bringing you dinner" person.
The End