Sunday, September 7, 2008

"It's not my season."

This weekend we had Stake Conference. We have a really great stake, and I feel that I can "brag" about that because if anything, I am one of the stake charity cases, not necessarily one of the reasons for its greatness. Saturday night was the adult meeting, which my neighbor Michelle and I attended together sans husbands. So there we sit in the overflow of a very packed Stake Center listening to a member of the stake presidency, the temple president and his wife, and finally Elder Pingree after a beautiful all male quartet. The night was mostly focused on temple attendence and the blessings and service therein. The talks were very inspiring and quite enjoyable until Elder Pingree stood. He started his remarks by saying that he was very impressed by the turnout at a Saturday night meeting, remarking that he hadn't seen a Saturday night meeting that full before. Then he talked about our stake having the highest number of temple workers (all of this information seemed very impressive to me) he seemed to want to prove his point to us by using a visual so he asked all the temple workers in the audience to stand, half of the audience stood (it was impressive). Then he asked all those who had attended the temple in the last week to stand, 2/3 of the audience was now standing (at this point I start to panic realizing it has been almost 6 months since I attended a session), then he asked all those who had attended in the last month to stand, and pretty much everyone in the entire chapel, overflow and gym all the way back to the stage stood. And there I was amongst the few of us trying to remember for sure when the last time we attended was. I leaned over to Michelle, who I will not incriminate by saying that she too was still sitting and whispered "Its not our season", mostly trying to make myself feel better. Soon the audience was seated and we blended back into the crowd, unlabeled, but not uneffected by the scenario that just took place. As Elder Pingree went on to give a most wonderful talk I reflected on my comment to Michelle about it not being my season. I think it is my season. I seem to have time to go to dinner and a movie, or to go on a bike ride after I drop preschool carpool off. I can find a babysitter for a doctors appointment, or to make a lunch date with a friend. But for some reason I have been able to justify to myself that because I don't have blue hair and orthopedic shoes I don't have time, and its not my season. Well, tomorrow starts my season. I may not be a temple worker anytime soon, or even make it more than once a month. But once every four weeks for two hours is not a lot to ask of any us. Besides, that actually only adds up to four times each season, and the the word on the street, or at least at our stake conference is that the temple is always in season. Hope to see you there...

5 comments:

Unknown said...

Dang! Thanks Sunni. No really - that was a great post but it hits a little hard.

Amy Peterson said...

I miss our stake! OH- I sure wish I could have been there! Now don't get me wrong, I love my ward here, but I just remember all the amazing people there! I loved the inspiration I felt- THANKS for the post!

Koch Family Blog said...

thanks for not incriminating me! When are we going?

Audy & Ash said...

Time to change the backgound music...maybe just even rotate the songs...you've gotta mix it up a bit

allison wright said...

thanks for the post and the positive reminder. cody and i need a pick me up all the time. we may just have to pass three temples and come with you to yours.