I'm wondering why people don't do what they know they should. I'm not talking about anyone being perfect here, but more or less that lack of EFFORT I'm seeing these days. I'm finding myself really frustrated today (and all week really) because of some of the selfishness I'm seeing. Perhaps my judgmental and irritated attitude makes me just as selfish and wrong as theirs. I don't know why I'm so upset about it either.
If I'm given a calling and I CHOOSE to accept the calling, I will always do my very best to give my best effort. Sure there are weeks that seem to lag by, but I feel I sincerly give it my best. For instance, how can a primary teacher expect to pray she'll have patience with her Sunbeam class if she's only done the minimum to prepare for her lesson (simply read through the lesson)? It just doesn't work that way. Right? I can't expect the kids in primary to learn all the songs for our program if I don't do my best to come up with games and riddles and activities to help them memorize the melodies and words. Yes, it is absolutely exhausting at times. And I certainly have weeks where I want to just give up and throw in the towel. But I don't. I show up the next week and start over again. I have to trust that if I do all can, the Lord will help fill in the gaps and teach the kids the spirit of the songs and help them sing it.
I've noticed in the past 2 weeks there are several parents in our ward who simply don't expect their kids to do their best. I've heard, "Well, if it's not a fun activity, you can leave. Just come home on time." Or, "I deserve to be treated better than that, and since I'm not getting the respect I deserve, I quit." Quit? Really? Instances like these really bother me. What's even more irritating is that I can't figure out exactly why I'm letting it bug me so much. Is it just because this kind of behavior creates more stress for Brent as our bishop? And of course, his stress means I'm stressed because there's really not much I can do to help in most cases. Of course, I don't know all the details of any issue (thankfully!) but what I do know is that I don't like what I'm seeing. Pride seems to be at the heart of almost every issue. No one seems to be putting themselves in the other person's shoes. I suppose by me complaining, I'm not either. I even get irritated that my kids have friends whose parents pay their kids to get good grades. I am fundamentally against this. Why shouldn't we expect our kids to just do their best because it's the RIGHT thing to do? I don't have a problem rewarding the kids with things like a family outing, or some other quality time kind of thing, but 10 bucks an A? (Not to mention, I'd go broke!) I heard a 6 yr old mention last night at mutual that she wouldn't do anything nice for her brother unless she was paid. 6 or not, what is going on?
I seriously don't know how Brent does his calling. He's got the patience of Job! Anyone in a leadership postion has got to want to pull their hair out once in a while. I suppose it's a good thing I don't have church tomorrow. Apparently I need a few days to calm down so I don't say something to someone I'll regret.
3 comments:
Your comment about parents allowing kids to pick and choose things based on whether they are fun or not rings very true here, too. I see apathy in 3/4 of the parents of the YM regarding Scouts, mutual, campouts, or really anything. The parents don't push their kids to excel in any of those things and provide plenty of outs. It's incredibly frustrating! -Jess
I get tired of men in the EQ complaining that they have to HT so many less-active families. Or even worse, asking to be released as a HT because they are at a critical part of their schooling and can't afford the distraction of hometeaching. Luckily, that has only happened twice in the last year but that is two times to many. By and large, we have a very faithful EQ who in spite of their 80 hour weeks at the hospital still manage to prepare lessons and care for their hometeaching families.
We had the same problem in Oklahoma but more with the adults than the youth. We didn't have very many youth to begin with. It was very annoying when the adults that were thought to be strong active members would just not come to church some times or would not make their little kids go to Primary or would skip Sunday School because they didn't like the teacher or because they wanted to chat. It's such a bad example and it makes me very sad. One of my dear friends from Oklahoma was like that I had such a hard time knowing someone so good didn't see going to class or making her kids go to class was an important part of our testimonies.
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