Seminary and Sacrifice

My new calling for my church, the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, is to be the early morning seminary teacher to 18 wonderful seniors, only three of which are in my ward (congregation). Every morning I get to teach a 50 minute lesson starting at 6:15 am about the Doctrine and Covenants. It's only been a few weeks, but I am already in love. In love with them as a group and in love with each and every one of them individually. They are a joy to teach, even if I caught two of them texting each other from across the room, and even if I see heads nodding from time to time.

Second to my love for them is the increased measure of love I have felt for my children when I come home and see their adorable faces. I am a happier mother as I get them ready for school. I love this joy I find in myself each morning, and I know that it is because I have just been immersed in the Spirit that makes me better.

Just below those joys is the Spirit of God that has entered into my life as I have prepared my lessons. I love feeling promptings from Heaven as to how my lessons should go. I love how, already, my testimony has increased just because I am that much more immersed in the Word of God on a daily basis. I have also become more selective of the media I consume the rest of the day because I am more aware of the effect it has on the Spirit. It has been a sanctifying experience for me and I am so grateful for it.

But despite these enormous blessings, I find myself frustrated that I don't seem to accomplish more in my day. I don't spend a tremendous amount of time preparing lessons, not anything bordering on excessive, and yet I seem to only have enough time for basic keeping house, exercise and seminary. The kids are gone for close to 7 hours every day, shouldn't I have time to those things plus tons more? I thought I would be able to do more paid work with the kids in school, but I am concerned that I no longer have the time. This dilemma mystifies and disconcerts me on a daily basis.

This concern may have been the subject of a personal fast. But then I read this conference talk by Elder Godoy in which he says:

"Regardless of the time the Lord, in His wisdom, determines to grant each of us, of one thing we can be sure: we all have a "today" to live, and the key to making our day successful is to be willing to sacrifice. 

The Lord said, "Behold, now it is called today until the coming of the Son of Man, and verily it is a day of sacrifice".

The word sacrifice comes from the Latin words sacer, which means "sacred," and facere, which means "to make" - in other words, to make things sacred, to bring honor to them."

How could these words not be inspired for me to read this afternoon? This time, this year of seminary is my sacrifice to my most loving Heavenly Father. I will have many many years to sew, and read for fun, and work, but this is my year to sacrifice for seminary and in turn, see the blessings of heaven.

I remember at the beginning of the year, being surprised and disappointed that I could not for the life of me get inspiration on what goals to set. I came up with a few, but truth be told, they were items I only felt semi-interested in pursuing. Nine months later I understand why. This is not my year to be super productive. This is my year to revel in the Spirit of God. I am so exited to see the additional blessings that will come this year now that I have adjusted my expectations.