Kari's week

Date: Wed, 23 May 2007

Well family of mine, I just had an amazing zone conference this Thursday and then today (wed) an amazing day at the temple. I've had a few things that I've been thinking about that I just wanted to share. I'll start off with a story that I got from the AP called "A Bologna Sandwich" by Bob Benson. Do you remember when they had old fashioned Sunday School picnics? I do. As I recall it was back in the "olden days" as my kids say, "back before they had air conditioning". They said, "We'll all meet at Sycamore Lodge in Shelby Park at 4:30 on Saturday. You bring your supper and we'll furnish the drinks". But if you were like me, you came home at the last minute. When you got ready to pack your picnic, all you could find in your refrigerator was one dried up piece of bologna and just enough mustard in the bottom of the jar so that you got it all over your knuckles trying to get at it. And just two slices of stale bread to go with it. So you make your bologna sandwich and wrapped it in an old brown bag and went to the picnic. When it came time to eat, you sat at the end of the table and spread out your sandwich. But the folks who sat next to you brought a feast. The lady was a good cook and she worked hard all day to get ready for the picnic. She had fried chicken, and baked beans, and potato salad, and homemade rolls, and sliced tomatoes, and pickles, and olives and celery. And two big homemade chocolate pies to top it off. That's what they spread out there next to you while you sat there with your bologna sandwich. But they said to you, "Why don't we just put it all together?" "No, I couldn't do that. I couldn't even think of it," you murmured in embarrassment, with one eye on the chicken. "Oh come on. There's plenty of chicken and plenty of pie and plenty of everything. And we just love bologna sandwiches. Lets put it all together." And so you did, and there you sat, eating like a king when you came as a pauper. One day, it dawned on me that God had been saying that sort of thing to me. "Why don't you take what you have and what you are, and I will take what I have and what I am and we'll share it together." I began to see that when I put consecration, denial, sacrifice, commitment, crosses, were all kind of hard words to me until I saw them in the light of sharing. It isn't just a case of me kicking in what I have because God is the biggest kid in the neighborhood and He wants it all for Himself. He is saying, "everything that I posses is available to you. Everything I am and cab be to a person, I will be to you." When I think about it like that, it really amuses me to see somebody running along through life hanging on to their dumb bag with a stale bologna sandwich in it saying, "God is not going to get my sandwich! No Siree! This is mine!" Did you ever see somebody like that" So needy, just about half starved to death, yet hanging on for dear life. It's not that God needs your sandwich. The fact is, you need His chicken when trying to accumulate, hold grasp, and keep everything together in your own strength gets to be too big a load; when you begin to realize that by yourself you're never going to fulfill your dreams, I hope you'll remember that it doesn't have to be that way. You have been invited to something better, you know. You have been invite to share in the very being of God.
I love that little story. It's so true! We are asked to give ALL to God. Often, we find this so hard to do and just hang on to those little things when if we would just give them up to God, the blessings we get back are so much greater. Everything He possesses is available to us if we just sacrifice. Giving all doesn't require me doing something large and huge everyday, but rather little, daily things. We show our love to our Savior by our little acts of sacrifice. By ourselves, we'll never be successful. We need the Lord! A scripture I found that goes right along with this is in D&C 117:13 that basically says that our sacrifice to the Lord is more pleasing than our increases. He doesn't care how much we have, but rather what we give. All we have really is so little compared to what He has given us. I've had to ask myself what I'm willing to lay on the alter and sacrifice to the Lord. It's not easy to let go of those little bologna sandwiches, but wow! That chicken is so much better!
Anyways, this is kind 0f what has been on my mind this week. I often wonder if I'm sacrificing enough or working hard enough, but everyday I try to do a little better. This week has been good... We have 2 baptismal dates set for the 3rd of June and the 10th of June. We're pretty excited, considering 3 weeks ago this area had nothing! The Lord really blesses this work! I love being here and serving the Lord and trying to forget myself and giving everything to Him. He is watching over me and guiding me and when I feel like I can't do it anymore, somehow I make it. I know it is only with Him that I can make it through everyday. Just like Reed said, without the Lord we really are nothing! I got told this week by a 23 year old boy that he felt sorry for me because I have been so deceived. He was trying to prove to me how the Book of Mormon contradicts "The Word" or the Holy Bible. No matter what anyone says to me though, I know without a doubt that the Book of Mormon is true and that Joseph Smith is a prophet. I know that this is the ONE and ONLY true church and no matter what anyone says to me, I know for myself that this is true. The world really is so soooooo lost. I'm so grateful that I have the truth and for the opportunity I have to share it, even though most people don't want it. This gospel is true. No one can convince me otherwise! Love you all! I'll write more on Monday! Love, Heramana Crosby