Motivated By Love

In a recent joint priesthood/Relief Society meeting, our bishop stated that many people are motivated by fear, and many are motivated by reward. He stated that he hoped we were beyond that and that we were motivated to action out of love.

Oh, that that were the case. I can’t tell you how many times I have received a phone call on the 29th or the 30th from my home teachers over the years telling me they’d like to come visit us. Sure, it’s better that they get out at all than not. To me, however, it makes me feel that they don’t come visit because they love my family or because they want to. It makes me feel that they do it because it is expected of them.

Same goes for everything else in the Church: service, temple work, sharing the gospel, teaching, talks, and so forth.

How can a principle like the bishop taught be accepted by the members of the Church?

6 thoughts on “Motivated By Love

  1. I’ve found it best to ignore the calendar when my home teachers call to make an appointment to visit (grin). This is a case where I can demonstrate love of the gospel and those who are striving to serve by overlooking a judgmental opportunity. Admittedly I sometimes don’t take advantage of such opportunities.

  2. waiting till the last day to get your HT/VT done is the same as always being 10 minutes late for Sacrament meeting. You know you have to be there on time why be late. It’s called procrastination. But that is ok.. when it comes down to Judgement Day and our blessings are handed out, hopefully they will be handed out accordingly and those that really do strive to do the right thing for the right reason will get the cream of the crop of blessings and whavever is left over can be divided by the rest who never really cared enough for their Father in Heaven to go the extra mile.

  3. I wish we could ignore the calendar, but it fills up pretty quickly. And actually if they COME that would be good. It’s when they make an appointment and don’t show up and don’t even reschedule or apologise for not coming that it makes me wonder if they care. Maybe that’s judgemental, but it’s how we feel. I would rather not have hometeachers at all, if we aren’t important enough to keep a commitment to.

  4. Commenting a week after the blog entry was posted. Who’s gonna notice. Well.

    If your home teachers come a few days before the end of the month this means that they have put off the onerous chore until the last moment.

    If they visit within the first few days of the month, this means that that they’re showboating, or don’t want to look like they’re putting off their duty until the last possible moment.

    If they visit within a few days of the 15th, this means that they don’t want to look like they’re too eager or too slothful.

    If they visit any day from the 5th through the 10th, then they are making sure they can tell the home teaching district supervisor they’re done already when he calls them on the 15th.

    If they visit any day from the 20th through the 25th, this is ideal, for it indicates that they are perfectly comfortable telling the district supervisor that they’ll get to it no problem, and not so slothful that they’re waiting until the last minute. This is therefore the best time to do one’s home teaching.

    Hah.

    Just be happy they made it. Our home teacher hasn’t made it by in over a year; in fact, never since he was assigned to us, in fact, though he sees us every Sunday. I’ve even tried inviting him to come by without effect. Count your blessings.

  5. Actually, they haven’t made it. At least not recently. The experience I shared was from last year and several times in the years before that. It is a rare thing for us to have home teachers visit us several months consecutively. When they do, they move away. It would not be an exaggeration to say that in the ten years we’ve been married, we have probably had roughly two dozen home teaching visits.

    Actually, I visit in in the first few days and I don’t do it for showboating or for reporting reasons. I have been maintaining this practise for ten years now, ever since I was first called into an elders quorum presidency.

    I first started doing it out of practicality because I had several families who would cancel my appointments. Making the appointments at the beginning of the month made sure I had plenty of time left over to reschedule. In fact, I had one family do this this month. I made an appointment for the fifth, they cancelled and I rescheduled for the tenth.

  6. I think there are good, better and best reasons to do the right thing. I try never to condemn a person for doing the right thing for a lesser reason.

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