01/10/2017HeatherFeather

Being Served By God’s Emissaries and Not Realizing It Until Years Later

front-elephantHere’s the elephant you were hoping for. Or maybe you weren’t, lol.

I have this verse of scripture jumbling through my head after my reading today:

Hebrews 13:2 “Be not forgetful to entertain strangers: for thereby some have entertained angels unawares.”

Ah, the things we realize in hindsight.

My thought when I started to re-listen to this General Conference talk today was, oh, this is that one about home teaching. Mentally I just checked it off in my mind as a bit of mental static. HA! Never underestimate the power of the Spirit plus Elder Holland to communicate to your heart exactly what you need to hear.  (Note for clarity: Home Teaching is a program in our church where a companionship of men is assigned to visit certain families in the congregation to check on their well-being and offer help where needed. Visiting Teaching is a similar program in which the women are assigned in companionships to visit other women in the congregation for the purpose of building friendship and love, and offering help when needed.)

The first thing that registered to me was the obvious – this talk also applies to visiting teaching.
The second thing that struck me, was an abrupt memory of some home teachers we had seven years ago, who went above and beyond the “required visit” each month, to help our family learn how to live in a country completely foreign to us when Mr. Hot Stuff’s work needed us to move to China. Although our home teachers were a father and son team, the whole Chow family reached out to nurture and befriend us. In fact, now that I think about it, Polly, the wife, may have also been my visiting teacher. In a city where the sun was often obscured by pollution, they were a light of hope and encouragement. Polly frequently brought me strawberries from Hong Kong, and reminded me that I was not alone or forgotten. We knew their family prayed for us, because of the way they greeted and went out of their way to encourage us through our challenges.  Each person in this family was, for us, an emissary from God, loving and caring and praying for our family, and we felt it.
“We are asking you as home teachers to be God’s emissaries to His children, to love and care and pray for the people you are assigned, as we love and care and pray for you. May you be vigilant in tending the flock of God in ways consistent with your circumstances”

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