the first sunday of each month brings a lesson taught by a member of the ward relief society presidency. we choose the topic ourselves, trying to think of a subject relative to the sisters in our ward, something we hope they may personally benefit from. i felt inspired during our most recent stake conference to speak about sustaining our leaders (might have been somewhat brought on seeing as a new stake presidency was announced) so here we are. here's the lesson i gave today... i hope it may be beneficial to someone reading ♥
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I felt particularly inspired during the final talk of stake
conference to focus my lesson today on sustaining our church leaders.
Let’s
begin today by making a list of words that mean the same thing as sustain:
(These were all written on the whiteboard, examples included:
uphold,
comfort, help, assist, encourage, succour, support, give
strength to, be a source of strength to, be a tower of strength
to, buoy up, carry, cheer up, hearten,
see someone through, undergo, suffer, bear, support, stand, keep
up, prop up, shore up, bolster, underpin…)
Pretty much every Sunday a member of the bishopric
reads out callings and releasings at the beginning of our sacrament meeting. We
raise our hands to sustain someone who has just received a new calling. Most of
the time it’s an automatic reaction. Some Sundays we may not even really listen to the names of the people
we are sustaining. It’s simply part of our Sacrament Meeting routine. Despite
this failing on our part, it is actually a very sacred action and one we need
to do with a thoughtful and prayerful heart. It is a critical motion with
eternal consequences and it comes with responsibilities.
READING 1: “It is a serious wrong
in the presence of the Almighty for one to vote to sustain the authorities of
the Church and then to go away and oppose them and trample under foot the
counsels that they give; and we will be judged of the Lord for it (President
Joseph F. Smith, Teachings of Presidents of the Church: Joseph
F. Smith, 1998, 218–19).
So when we raise our hand to sustain someone,
whether it is the nursery leader or the prophet, what are we really doing? We
are not voting. We don’t get to choose who will serve in the calling. That was
already prayerfully taken to the Lord by the person who had the authority to do
so. We are, instead, agreeing to accept callings or assignments from them if
they are in a position to offer them, to help them in any way we can. Our sustaining
is a vote of confidence in the person. We are promising to support them in their work and
(something I think we should all remember) to speak well of them. We are committing ourselves to accepting that
their call came from God.
READING 2:
Sister
Terrie Bittner, author of “What Does It Mean to Sustain our Leaders” on the
website Mormon Women Stand, said that this truth was brought home for her, one
day when she called and asked someone to substitute for her in Primary. This
sister admitted that teaching Primary was not her favourite thing, but that she
had raised her hand to sustain her when she was called, and so, accepting my
request for help was part of the promise she had made to God that day. She
substituted and worked hard to give the class a wonderful experience. She then
went on to say, “ I wondered then if I had ever worked so hard to carry out my
covenant to sustain someone in a calling. I believe that is what sustaining
someone is—a covenant with God.”
That is something we would all do well to remember
when we are extended an assignment or asked to assist with a lesson, an activity
or simply just to attend those
lessons or activities that people have put so much effort into.
READING 3: “It is an important duty resting upon
the Saints who … sustain the authorities of the Church, to do so not only by
the lifting of the hand, the mere form, but in deed and in truth.” This
statement was made in 1898, when President Smith was Second Counsellor in the
First Presidency. (Teachings of Presidents of the Church: Joseph F.
Smith (1998), 211.)
READING 4: "No person is to be ordained to any
office in this church, where there is a regularly organized branch of the same,
without the vote of that church." (Doctrine
& Covenants 20:65)
We have an opportunity to
sustain—support, help, pray for—each of these people in their callings. We
indicate our willingness to do so by raising our right hands when their names
are read to us in general conference, stake conference, ward or branch
conference, or sacrament meeting. Raising our hands is a sign to us, to them,
and to the Lord that we will sustain them.
Do
any of you recall watching General Conference in April 2015, when during the
Saturday Afternoon Session of Conference during the sustaining of the church
officers, several members stood and loudly opposed our first presidency? How
did it make you feel? I DO remember it well and I felt sick to my stomach. I
remember saying angrily to my husband, how could someone do that? How dare they? Why
bother going to conference if you don’t agree with them? That’s the whole POINT
of going to conference, to listen to them!
Mormons, like everyone else, are opinionated
people. We will often have more experience than the person called to lead. We
sometimes have personal beliefs that cause us to want things to be done
differently than they are. However, once God has approved a calling, we are
expected to become humble followers of this person. While this may seem hard or
short-sighted, we will someday be the one who is sustained into a calling we
are less qualified for. Then we will hope others will be patient and supportive
during our time.
Jesus taught us to treat others the way we
ourselves want to be treated. The Church is not like the world. We don’t always
fill our positions with the most qualified person. (Although with modern
politics you have to wonder!) Often the person in the calling is there because
there is something he can learn from it. Other times he is there because there
is a specific situation or person he can best help, even if he’s less qualified
for other parts of the work.
God moves us around to various callings in order to
help us grow. We are called to sustain them, whether or not we think they are
qualified. God calls; God qualifies. Sustaining people is a covenant we make at
the local level. It is also a covenant when we sustain the prophet and the
apostles. We covenanted in the waters of baptism and in the temple to follow
Jesus Christ and God, and we covenanted to follow the prophet as the Lord’s
mouthpiece in our time. To do anything less is to violate our sacred covenants.
To do anything less is to decide God made a mistake—and God never makes
mistakes.
READING
5: “When we sustain the President of the Church by our
uplifted hand, it not only signifies that we acknowledge before God that he is
the rightful possessor of all the priesthood keys; it means that we covenant
with God that we will abide by the direction and the counsel that comes through
His prophet. It is a solemn covenant” (David B. Haight, Solemn Assemblies,
Ensign, Nov. 1994, 14–15).
To do otherwise is dangerous. Joseph F. Smith said:
“Men may become dissatisfied one with
another, they may become dissatisfied towards the Presidency, the Quorum of the
Twelve, or others, and may say in their hearts, “I do not like such an one; I
do not believe he is as good as he should be, he has too many faults and
weaknesses and, therefore, I cannot and will not acknowledge his authority, as
I have not faith in the man.” Doubtless there are those, too many perhaps, who
feel that way, but the trouble is, … just because they have become dissatisfied
with the individual and harboured feelings of bitterness in their hearts
against their brethren, they lose sight of the designs of the Almighty; they
turn against the authority of the Holy Priesthood; and through their blindness
allow themselves to be led astray, and at last turn away from the Church.”
One of the
temple recommend questions is “Do you sustain the President of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day
Saints as the Prophet, Seer, and Revelator and as the only person on the earth
who possesses and is authorized to exercise all priesthood keys? Do you sustain
members of the First Presidency and the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles as
prophets, seers, and revelators? Do you sustain the other General Authorities
and local authorities of the Church? Please note that it includes local authorities. So whether we agree
with their decisions or not, we must accept them and remember these men (and
women!) have been called of the Lord and are his mouthpiece. What it all comes
down to for me, is “Is the church true?” Of course it is! Then we are safe in
the care of our leaders, because they Lord picked them.
You might not
like someone that is called to a position in the gospel, especially a position
of authority, but you should sustain them anyway. For those of you who attended
the most recent stake conference, you would have heard in one of the testimonies, that when our last stake president was called one of the bishops had said, I don’t like the way
he talks! He then went out of his way to get to know him better, had them over
for dinner. How many times have we said we don’t like someone before getting to
know them. I know I am terrible for that… We can do the same, get to know
someone and close that gap.
READING
6: Doctrine
and Covenants 1:38 warns:
“Whether by mine own voice or by the voice of my servants, it is the same.”
There is so much safety in knowing God has provided us with a prophet to get
through the last days of the world. It is one of His gifts of love to our children
and our willingness to follow the prophet he has chosen is our message of how
much we love and trust God. It is our testimony in action—and a testimony that
is words without action does not have the power to bring us back home to God.
Whom the Lord
calls, the Lord qualifies. Those who he calls are blessed to have the right
words, so long as they remain worthy to receive them. They are able to open
their mouth and speak the words that the Lord wants them to speak. Joseph Smith
said on more than one occasion that he was not mighty in words but the Lord
promised him, as recorded in the doctrine and covenants: "It shall be
given you in the very moment what you shall speak and what you shall write."
There is no recorded evidence that he ever
spoke from a prepared text!, something else we learnt during stake conference.
I'd like for
once to share a rather personal experience. I was called as the ward relief
society president just 18 months ago. I was 32 years old. I always assumed the
RSP was someone in their 40s or 50s, or even older, not someone my age! In fact, at first I was
convinced that my husband and bishop had set me up for a joke. When beautiful
Sister Evans, our stake RSP sat with me, I said. I can't do this. I'm so
awkward. I always say the wrong thing
at the wrong time. Her words were simple but perfect. “If you do the right
thing and pray for the right words, you can open your mouth and they will come.
And you can be assured that they will always
be the right words.” I don’t think I’ve become any less awkward, but the
words have come.
READING
7: President
Eyring shared a beautiful story about one young man's example of sustaining his
Church leaders: Years ago an 18-year-old student showed me what it means to
sustain the Lord’s servants. I am still blessed by his humble example. He had
just begun his first year in college. He was baptized less than a year before
he left home to begin his studies at a large university. There I served as his
bishop.
As the school year began, I had a brief
interview with him in the bishop’s office. I remember little of that first
conversation except that he spoke of his challenges in a new place, but I will
never forget our second conversation. He asked to see me in my office. I was
surprised when he said, “Could we pray together, and may I be voice?” I was
about to say that I had already prayed and expected that he had as well.
Instead I agreed. He began his prayer with a testimony that he knew the bishop
was called of God. He asked God to tell me what he should do in a matter of
great spiritual consequence. The young man told God he was sure the bishop
already knew his needs and would be given the counsel he needed to hear. As he
spoke, the specific dangers he would face came to my mind. The counsel was
simple but given in great clarity: pray always, obey the commandments, and have
no fear.
That young man, one year in the Church,
taught by example what God can do with a leader as he is sustained by the faith
and prayers of those he is called to lead. That young man demonstrated for me
the power of the law of common consent in the Church . I spoke recently
with that young man who sustained his bishop years ago. I learned that the Lord
and the people had sustained him in his call as a missionary, as a stake
president, and as a father. He said as our conversation ended, “I still pray
for you every day.” ("First
Presidency Message: Called of God and Sustained by the People," Liahona,
June 2012)
What are some ways we can support or
help leaders of the Church both locally and on a larger scale. Ideas include:
by our faith and prayers in their behalf, by helping when they ask us, by
accepting callings extended to us and most importantly, by following their
counsel.
May I leave you my sisters, with an
encouragement to not only sustain your church leaders, but to take
opportunities to tell them that you do! If you like a talk someone gives, tell
them. If you like a lesson, take the time out to let them know. If a leader
goes out of their way to help you or your family, show your gratitude by
telling them, then helping someone else.
sources:
