This morning started with the phone ringing as Trent Hall asked for someone to give the closing prayer in sacrament meeting – I accepted the invitation. Laura and I decided that it would be prudent to keep most of the family home rather than spread last week’s flu/RSV type bug to the rest of the ward since everyone who had been sick was probably still contagious. I went to church with only Mariah and Laura asked me to take her place in the library since she was staying home (having been among the sick this week). As I settled in to my chair for the beginning of priesthood meetings a member of our bishopric approached me and asked if I would lead the music there.
I’m trying to decide – is it a good thing that I’m able to do all those things so that I can help out in many different ways, or is a bad thing that I have a wide variety of skills so that I have no excuse to decline?
Dumb question 🙂 Of course it’s great!
True – I’d rather be Mr. Fill-in-the-Blank than Mr. One-Trick-Pony.
Being kind of a jack-of-all-trades with respect to church stuff myself, I can only say that it is a double-edged sword. There are few positions (with some important exceptions) in a ward for which I couldn’t fill in at a moment’s notice. But that can lead to pride, not knowing when to delegate, and being spread too thin.
There are pros and cons. It’s important to refrain from getting too proud that one might have five loaves and two fishes as opposed to others that might have only two or three loaves and one fish. Either way, it is the Master that feeds the 5,000.
You’re right about who feeds the 5,000.
Honestly I don’t think I as much in danger of becoming proud for having a variety of skills as I am in danger of being spread too thin because of my inability to decline any request. I have not spent much time in positions where delegation was even a possibility so I can only guess at how well I would make use of that option (probably that would be another weakness of mine).