The topic of ministering is a little difficult for me. But I actually want to start with about our premortal existence.
Before we came to earth our Father in Heaven had a plan set up for us. His plan would allow us to come down to earth and choose whether or not we would follow Him. From the beginning we knew that Jesus Christ was chosen to be our Savior. In the Grand Council in heaven, Lucifer, a son of the morning, proposed another way.
Elder D. Todd Christofferson explained,
“This was not simply a case of Jesus supporting the Father’s plan and Lucifer proposing a slight modification. Lucifer’s proposal would have destroyed the plan by eliminating our opportunity to act independently” (D. Todd Christofferson, "A Message at Christmas", BYU Devotional, Dec 2017).
Agency is one of the most critical pieces of our Father’s plan. Our Father allowed 1/3 part of his children to follow Satan because they chose to.
Agency is that important.
Now on earth, we also have agency to choose what we will do and who we will follow.
Recently the method of our ministering assignments has been changed. We are not really accountable to anyone anymore. We can choose for ourselves if we will do it, and also when and how we will do it. There are guidelines, but the choice is ours.
On the Church’s website it describes what I think is the ideal when it comes to ministering.
“We naturally minister to our families, those we love, and others around us. In wards, we also receive assignments as ministering brothers or ministering sisters to care for ward members in an organized way. We ensure that all are cared for and no one is forgotten” https://www.churchofjesuschrist.org/study/manual/gospel-topics/ministering?lang=eng).
In a perfect world that might be true. However, as many of you might know, or might have experienced, sometimes people are forgotten.
We know that the natural man is an enemy to God, and sometimes we don’t want to do what He asks. Sometimes it is really hard. At the beginning of this post I said this was a hard topic for me, because I feel like one of those who, sometimes, has been forgotten.
Looking back in my life I really don’t remember a time where someone touched my heart because they were assigned to minister to me.
However, I can remember numerous times when the spirit has guided me to do things to help others. This has caused me to think more about the purpose of ministering. Why is it something that we have been asked to do? Sometimes it can be really inconvenient, uncomfortable, or even awkward, and we know that the Lord “doeth not anything save it be for the benefit of the world” (2 Nephi 26:24). So there must be a deeper purpose, but what is it?
My thoughts brought me back to agency, and the council in heaven.
Elder D. Todd Christofferson taught,
“Choice…requires law, or predictable outcomes. We must be able by a particular action or choice to cause a particular outcome or result—and by the opposite choice create the opposite outcome. If actions don’t have fixed consequences, then no one has control over outcomes and choice is meaningless”(D. Todd Christofferson, "A Message at Christmas", BYU Devotional, Dec 2017).
Agency is vital to our probationary time on earth. Satan’s plan wasn’t, as some might suppose, a plan to force everyone to be righteous. His rebellion was far more sinister.
Elder Bruce R. McConkie explained,
“[Satan’s plan] offered a mortal life of carnality and sensuality, of evil and crime and murder, following which all men would be saved…Lucifer and his [followers] sought salvation without keeping the commandments” (Millennial Messiah p. 667).
Satan’s plan proposed that everyone could do whatever they wanted and everyone would receive the same reward, no matter what they did. That is how he “sought to destroy the agency of man” (Moses 4:3). It would make choice meaningless.
The Lord knows that the adversary will never progress from the current state he is in, and that he is absolutely miserable. He doesn’t want us to live in that same miserable state so he gives us commandments to help stretch us so that we can progress.
James E. Talmage gives us a little insight into this. He said,
“The Eternal Father well understood the diverse natures and varied capacities of His spirit-offspring; and His infinite foreknowledge made plain to Him, even in the beginning, that in the school of life some of His children would succeed and others would fail; some would be faithful, others false; some would choose the good, others the evil; some would seek the way of life while others would elect to follow the road to destruction….He saw that His commandments would be disobeyed and His law violated; and that men, shut out from His presence and left to themselves, would sink rather than rise, would retrograde rather than advance, and would be lost to the heavens” (James E. Talmage, “Jesus the Christ”, p16).
As mortal men and women, if we are left on our own, we will stop progressing. I know that my life would be horribly miserable if I could never change from who I used to be. The Lord gives us challenges to stretch us. He asks more of us than we sometimes think is possible because it gives us something to aim for. Something closer to becoming like Him.
The Lord understands what we are going through. He has been in our shoes. He understands when we’re overwhelmed, when we don’t feel like we can handle one more thing, and he also knows when we are trying.
That is why we have been given a gift. The Atonement of Jesus Christ. Its power allows us to change. Elder Lynn G. Robbins taught,
“Repentance is God’s ever-accessible gift that allows and enables us to go from failure to failure without any loss of enthusiasm. Repentance isn’t His backup plan in the event we might fail. Repentance is His plan, knowing that we will” (Lynn G. Robbins, "Until Seventy Times Seven", General Conference, April 2018).
We will fail in this life. But to succeed we must be willing to try again. We need to reach for something higher and something better.
Ministering can be seen as a greater law than visiting or home teaching. It is a way to stretch ourselves, through our own actions and efforts, to become more like our Savior.
The Lord allows us to use our own minds, experiences, gifts, talents, abilities, and our agency to choose what we will do. We are each unique, and ministering should not look the same for everyone.
In the Doctrine and Covenants we read:
“Verily I say, men should be anxiously engaged in a good cause, and do many things of their own free will, and bring to pass much righteousness; for the power is in them, wherein they are agents unto themselves. And inasmuch as men do good they shall in no wise lose their reward” (Doctrine & Covenants 58:27-28).
The Lord gave each of us unique gifts and challenges, but in the end, the Lord really wants our heart — our pure intent. If we are trying to “do good” but don’t get half of the “to dos” off of our checklist the Lord understands, and He loves our effort.
I believe that the Lord would rather we do one thing with real intent (even if that means leaving the rest for later), than doing a thousand things with half-hearted effort.
Through the Atonement of Jesus Christ we can try again and again in our efforts to improve. As President Nelson said in this last conference, “faith is the power that enables the unlikely to accomplish the impossible” (Russell M. Nelson, "Christ Is Risen; Faith in Him Will Move Mountains", April 2021 General Conference). We are some of the most unlikely creatures, but with God nothing is impossible. We can have faith that the Atonement of Jesus Christ has the power to change us, the power to heal, the power to give us the strength to do those things beyond our natural capacities.
However, we need to choose to use our agency to act. Under the Gospel Topics about ministering it says, “Through prayer and inspiration, we will be blessed to know how to minister as the Savior did”. And, as President Nelson has exhorted us recently we can, “Choose to do the spiritual work required to enjoy the gift of the Holy Ghost and hear the voice of the Spirit more frequently and more clearly” (Russell M. Nelson, "Revelation for the Church, Revelation for Our Lives", General Conference, April 2018).
What might this look like when it comes to ministering? I think that ministering doesn’t mean just reaching out to our ‘assigned people’. It requires a change of heart. Opening our heart to “Hear Him” will bring specific revelation and inspiration. It may look differently than what we might have imagined.
I remember talking to a neighbor once who said “I am assigned to visit [a person that I knew] but I keep feeling that I need to stay away”. Knowing the circumstances that surrounded this person I told them, “Thank you so much for listening to the Spirit”. I knew that them visiting out of obligation would further compound the problem this person was dealing with.
Another time, my daughter and I were out walking when she said “Mom, we should go visit the lady who’s cat got into our yard”. I agreed (somewhat grudgingly because I was tired, I didn’t know her very well, and I wasn’t really sure what to say). We got to the door and when I asked how she was doing she told me that her son had been in an accident the previous weekend. She just needed someone to talk to, and I didn’t really need to say anything. I wasn’t assigned to her, but the spirit led my daughter to know that she needed someone to stop by.
Another example of "unusual" ministering happened in a ward that I lived in several years ago. I had a sister that I was assigned to and I didn’t know her. From her neighbors I had heard that she was scary and could be very mean and angry. I was a little scared and wasn’t sure how to approach her. I prayed about it and felt that I should send her a card. I did, explaining why I was reaching out, and gave her my cell number if she ever needed anything. She texted me back, and we texted for over a year, without ever meeting in person. We were able to build a relationship where her heart (and mine) were changed because I was acting on what the spirit directed me to do, rather than just checking her off my to-do list.
As we follow the admonition of our prophet to “Hear Him” (Russell M. Nelson, "Hear Him", General Conference, April 2020), our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ, and listen to the Spirit, we can come to know Him better. We can know His plan for us, and how we can grow in our efforts to become more like Him.
I love the quote by Joseph Smith that says, “Our Heavenly Father is more liberal in his views, and boundless in his mercies and blessings, than we are ready to believe or receive”. (Joseph Smith, History, 1838–1856, volume D-1 [1 August 1842–1 July 1843]).
Our Father in Heaven really does love us. He really knows our needs as well as our capacities. He wants to help us, and is giving us opportunities to become more like Him, and is waiting anxiously for us to turn to Him.
