I’ve rarely had a calling come as a complete surprise–before, my life was mostly controlled in 8-month segments by the semesters, and I could usually count on a church calling that had something to do with music or teaching (because that’s what I would tell my singles-ward bishops that I liked to do most).
That all changed, however, when I got married. Soon after moving into the ward where we are currently stationed, I unexpectedly got called as the Relief Society secretary, which I have loved–it’s allowed me to form priceless friendships and to really get to know most of the women in the ward.
But we can only live in our comfort zones for so long.
I’ve known for a few weeks now what my new calling would be, but today it was made official: I am now the new Young Women’s president for my ward.
“Inadequate” and “inexperienced” doesn’t even begin to describe how I feel. I was feeling especially nervous before church started today, as I knew today would be the day it all became official.
But then, as so often happens, I came across just the thing I needed; in this case, it was something I’d written in my mission journals near the beginning of my mission experience. The entry went like this:
“[In one of our meetings, we] talked about how baby eagles learn to fly by being pushed out of the nest by their mother. Thus, like eagles learning how to fly, sometimes we need to be pushed out of our own nests (our “comfort zones”) in order to fly. Or, as Peter when he walked on the water, we need someone to push us out of the boat—and someone to walk to. This idea was reiterated in an MTC talk from 2006 by Jeffrey R. Holland that we listened to. In it, he recited this:
“Come to the edge,” He said.
