Lesson 12
There were some great readings and videos in this week's lesson! I always love to listen to Elder Holland and his testimony. I remember listening to his talk "Are We Not all Beggars?" I especially appreciated the quote from the scriptures, "She had done what she could." It reminded me again (as I've been reminded on several occasions) that doing our best is what Heavenly Father asks of us. Sometimes our best will be a lot, but sometimes our best will be similar to the widow's mite, which may be all we can do at the time.
I was impressed by this talk so much that I shared it with my family along with the quote about Mother Teresa,
"A journalist once questioned Mother Teresa of Calcutta about her hopeless task of rescuing the destitute in that city. He said that, statistically speaking, she was accomplishing absolutely nothing. This remarkable little woman shot back that her work was about love, not statistics. Notwithstanding the staggering number beyond her reach, she said she could keep the commandment to love God and her neighbor by serving those within her reach with whatever resources she had. “What we do is nothing but a drop in the ocean,” she would say on another occasion. “But if we didn’t do it, the ocean would be one drop less [than it is]." Soberly, the journalist concluded that Christianity is obviously not a statistical endeavor. He reasoned that if there would be more joy in heaven over one sinner who repents than over the ninety and nine who need no repentance, then apparently God is not overly preoccupied with percentages."
This quote goes along with what I shared in my book report on "A Field Guide for the Hero's Journey" by Jeff Sandefer and Rev. Robert Sirico. I finished my book report with this (before I reviewed the talk by Elder Holland!):
I was impressed by this talk so much that I shared it with my family along with the quote about Mother Teresa,
"A journalist once questioned Mother Teresa of Calcutta about her hopeless task of rescuing the destitute in that city. He said that, statistically speaking, she was accomplishing absolutely nothing. This remarkable little woman shot back that her work was about love, not statistics. Notwithstanding the staggering number beyond her reach, she said she could keep the commandment to love God and her neighbor by serving those within her reach with whatever resources she had. “What we do is nothing but a drop in the ocean,” she would say on another occasion. “But if we didn’t do it, the ocean would be one drop less [than it is]." Soberly, the journalist concluded that Christianity is obviously not a statistical endeavor. He reasoned that if there would be more joy in heaven over one sinner who repents than over the ninety and nine who need no repentance, then apparently God is not overly preoccupied with percentages."
This quote goes along with what I shared in my book report on "A Field Guide for the Hero's Journey" by Jeff Sandefer and Rev. Robert Sirico. I finished my book report with this (before I reviewed the talk by Elder Holland!):
Whatever we call it – hero’s journey, personal ministry, life’s calling
– we all have a purpose in this life. What we do with it is up to us. Some will
have a hero’s journey that influences thousands, maybe millions of people. But
most of us will have journeys that will mostly influence hundreds of people. I
don’t think the numbers of who we have been able to influence is a good measure
of how successful we have been in our journey. What we’ve done, who we’ve
become, how we’ve influenced others is what is important.
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