As I awaken on this beautiful Sabbath morning, I am filled with a sense of hope and joy as we
begin a new month and, in many ways, a new season in our lives.
Like many of you, Lori and I have taken the arrival of spring as an opportunity to prepare our
yard for the upcoming summer. Much of the old detritus (Shauna, this word is for you) has been
raked out of flower beds and lawns and set aside for compost purposes, and materials to build
new garden boxes have been purchased. It’s always exciting to see new growth and to plant
seeds with the expectation of a bounteous harvest in the fall.
I like to think of myself as a bit of a planner, so when Lori mentioned, for likely the 100th time
last year how much she hates the deer coming into our yard and eating all the flowers and
vegetables, and how much she wanted a fence to prevent that, I’ve been gathering information
and amassing supplies to start that project. Then she said she wanted to try using garden
boxes for our vegetable garden, and that again required some careful thought, planning and
acquisition. While embroiled in this carefully thought out organization and planning, I returned
one day from a short trip to Lethbridge to discover that my neighbour and good friend, Paul
Sloan, with the help of at least Tyler, if not Ridge as well, had, in less time than it took me to
drive to Lethbridge and back, already completed a whole series of garden boxes, while mine
hadn’t even begun to take shape.
Now there are some lessons there for all of us, and especially me. The first is, it’s not nice to
have unkind feelings toward a person just because he works with otherworldly speed resulting
in a really bad case of “garden box envy”. I’m sure he’ll have a deer fence up by noon
tomorrow. But I digress.
The second, and more important lesson, is that we can so often get caught up in the planning
and perfection of a matter that we fail to execute. Hours and hours of planning and
preparation, while potentially important, likely mean nothing if we cannot pull the trigger on the
execution.
I think in many ways, our gospel lives can find some parallels. We can buy all the study
material, purchase online resources, pray earnestly for inspiration concerning service, and even
attend meeting after meeting regarding being a better member of the Church, and it means
little if we don’t put all that information to use. An unread Book of Mormon might look good on
a table in your den, but it does you no good unless you actually feast upon its words. Action is
always required, otherwise we are likely only going to ever have good intentions, which,
although laudable, rarely, if ever, accomplish much on their own.
Today is Fast Sunday. Ordinarily, we would be gathering together to bear and hear testimony. I
urged you last week to take this opportunity to share that testimony with family and friends
using technology of some kind. I realize that may be difficult for some, for all kinds of reasons.
So I have another suggestion; do it the old fashioned way. In other words, put pen to paper
and write your testimony in a letter, or record it in your journal. Expressions of faith and a
testimony of the divinity of Our Savior are never wasted. Whether they touch someone today or
years from now, the simple bearing of testimony can sometimes make all the difference.
I attended my first virtual funeral this past week as the Hegedus family gathered to celebrate
the life of Pat. She left a marvellous legacy and I was moved as I listened to her family speak of
her loving influence on their lives.
Each one of us has a similar opportunity. By our actions and words, we can impact, hopefully
in a positive fashion, the lives of those around us.
Lori and I stepped out of our home the other day to find messages of love and support from
some of the Young Women of our ward written in chalk on our driveway. Their act of kindness
was so appreciated. To them, and to all of you, let me say, we too love you to the moon and
back.
Have a wonderful Sunday.
Bishop Brooks
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| (and this is my own addition to the Bishop's letter ... these last 2 were on Spencer's driveway and too pretty to not include) |
