Serving in Primary

In the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, Primary is the organization responsible for the children ages 18 months to 12 years old.  Since we have a lay clergy, this organization and its teachers are all volunteers.  We're also responsible for a pre-teen girls group that meets twice monthly, and the cub scout group.  On Sundays, Primary has two hours of instruction, music, and maybe a game for the children.  One Sunday per year, the children give a presentation to the entire congregation during the main church service, or sacrament meeting.  I am currently the Primary President for my local congregation or ward.  We believe that our assignments or callings come from the Lord through inspired leaders who pray about these decisions.  I know that Heavenly Father has directed my hand when I have asked the bishop to assign various people to my Primary -- yes, mine.  I believe the Lord wants us to take ownership of our callings and our ward.  I have had very clear answers in choosing my teachers and counselors.

I am grateful for my assignment in Primary.  I may be wrong, but I think I've been in Primary since the autumn of 2009 -- this time around.  That means that for two years I spend the first hour of church struggling with my own children in a pew trying to keep their sounds somewhere below a roar, and the next two hours assisting teachers, struggling with or teaching everyone else's children, and still struggling with my own.  The experience itself is exhausting, but its also often frustrating when the adults are unreliable.  That means that for two years, I have not heard an adult lesson in Church and it would appear to some that for two years I haven't felt the Spirit in Church, but they would be wrong.

I am a busy person.  I don't even say it anymore, I pretty much refuse to, but people come up to me and tell me how busy I am.  They just don't know the half of it.  I don't have time to talk about it, I just run.  Most of it, I do to myself.  Some of it is the result of various external influences.  Lately, its completely out of hand.  I know that I often come across as cold or unfriendly to other adults because I am so focused on getting the day done, on being there for the ward's children and keeping an eye on my own, that I don't stop.  I barely see anyone else.  But that is exactly why the Heavenly Father put me in Primary -- because He knew what these last two years would be like for me spiritually, personally, and professionally, and He knew it was the one place where He could still break through my tough "survive at all costs" exterior and reach my tender heart.

Me, with two college degrees, who leads teams at work and at Church, who can in one breath size up a junior engineer, a multi-year cost account on a government contract, the contents of the refrigerator at home, and the local six year old.  I've studied the Gospel in depth, and served a faithful full-time mission.  No matter what's going on, or how distracted I am, I can be reached in & through a Primary lesson.  My Father in Heaven can reach my tender heart through the honest, straightforward questions of a handful of children.  He can reach me by letting me know that the 20 minutes of instruction I provide are some of the most important moments in my entire year.  And I know that I don't want to fail those children.

I am grateful and very honored to serve the children of my ward.  I know that the Lord has guided my hand in powerful ways to select my counselors, secretaries, teachers, Nursery leaders, Activity Day & scout leaders.  I know that being a Nursery leader for the 18 month old - 3 year old children is not a baby sitting assignment.  I know that it is pretty much the most sacred calling in the Church.  You are laying the cornerstones of their testimonies through music, talking, and play.  You are showing them that someone besides their family loves them dearly.  That this is a tree, it has leaves, and that God loved the children so much that He made a world of trees for them, that He made apples for them to eat, and dogs that go "woof, woof".  You are teaching my son, his favorite song, "I Love to See the Temple".  You are holding my daughter while her mother teaches elsewhere, because God asked her to  -- and only because she knows it was her Father in Heaven who asked.

So, support your local Primary president.  Accept the assignment, or accept the request to substitute teach.  But better yet, support her when she calls that Nursery leader -- quite possibly she prayed about it and is merely running the Lord's errand.