Who Needs Me?

 

 

My sister told me earlier this month that she was the compassionate service leader in her church congregation now and asked what she was supposed to do? I told her she had to make a quilt for every new baby that was born into the congregation. She said, “I quit!”

Of course I was kidding her. I happen to love to make quilts and give them to people for love and comfort.

One woman I know kept asking what she had to do to get one of my quilts. I said, “Have

A baby.” As a fifty year old with two teenagers that was not in her plans. Then on Christmas Eve her dear husband had a stroke and I gave her a quilt for comfort.

There are many things people do to show love and comfort to others. The Senior Center has a project Linus group to make quilts for kids in need. Our quilt guild made quilts for every family who lost a home in our town in 2000. Our women’s organization made quilts for a children’s hospital. Girl troops have made teddy bears for the police to hand out to children who have had a trauma in their lives.Anotherwoman asks groups to tie  fleece blankets to give teens as the age out of foster care.

            We take meals to people who are sick, treats and visits to those who are lonely, rides to appointments, clean homes when people are moving or too ill. There are many ways we can give some compassionate service to those around us.

            In her book Disciples, Chieko N. Okazaki quotes Power comes from love. Achievement and ability come from love. We can try to do it on our own or we can really achieve with the Savior--- by accepting his love and by being willing to love others in return.

Pg 9      In a face Book post this week Common Consent Blog writer Christian Harrison writes,

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 “This week has been a very hard one for me and many of my friends. I’ve spent many hours on the phone with friends comforting them and being comforted in return. I’ve sat with friends who ache, and we’ve wept together. And while this week has been…  extra-ordinary …we have — each one of us — at one time or another, asked what the poet asks: “Where can I turn for peace?”

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Where Can I Turn for Peace?

LDS HYMNEL

Emma Lou Thayne wrote what would become hymn 129  in our Hymnbook in 1971, upon the unexpected death of her daughter

Where can I turn for peace?    Where is my solace
When other sources cease to make me whole?
When with a wounded heart, anger, or malice,
I draw myself apart, Searching my soul?

Where, when my aching grows,
Where, when I languish,
Where, in my need to know, where can I run?
Where is the quiet hand to calm my anguish?
Who, who can understand?
He, only One.

He answers privately,    Reaches my reaching
In my Gethsemane, Savior and Friend.
Gentle the peace he finds for my beseeching.
Constant he is and kind,
Love without end.

Christian Harrison continues,

“Of course the answer to the question, “Where can I turn for peace” is “The Prince of Peace”. But as well cemented as that idea is, in our culture… we can’t help but recognize that it’s a very abstract idea. Beyond reaching out to Him Who Listens through prayer, what is there?

President Hinckley urged us to “get on [our] knees and pray, then [to] get on [our] feet and work”.

Faith, after all, without work, is dead [James 2].

So what is the work of peace? What does finding our own peace look like?

While I have no doubt that there is more than one path to peace, I would like to share with you my own. I find peace, when peace can be found, at the intersection of charity and grace.”

            With the turmoil surrounding us in our world right now, many are searching for peace, comfort, love and safety. Many of us are afraid to help the refugees in Europe. We are aching for the citizens of Paris. What can we do? Where is our Compassionate Service?