Warm Fuzzies

It's a new year and I have struggled with what I want to do this year to better myself - to find my "theme" for the year 2010. Next year at this time, I want to look back on this year and feel like it wasn't a year wasted. That I made a small difference in this big world.

With that said, this is a busy time of year for a primary president. A new theme is focused on and introduced. The theme is the foundation for birthday spotlights, a bulletin board, quarterly activities, sharing times, and music. New classes are formed. Teachers are moved around. New teachers are called and oriented. New schedules must be made. Binders are compiled. A fresh "crop" of Sunbeams join us each Sunday.

The church wide theme for primary in 2010 is "I Know My Savior Lives." It is a beautiful statement and one that reminds me of our testimonies and what we KNOW. How would this world be different if every child knew that their Savior, Jesus Christ, lives and loves them?

With primary on the brain, along with my search for a personal theme, I had an "ah-ha" moment as I remembered the talk given by President Monson last October at General Conference. His talk was entitled, "What Have I Done for Someone Today?" And this jogging of my memory was the answer to a prayer - the answer to my need for a personal theme.

In that talk, President Monson said, " 'By love serve one another.'...The Savior taught His disciples, 'For whosoever will save his life shall lose it: but whosoever will lose his life for my sake, the same shall save it.' I believe the Savior is telling us that unless we lose ourselves in service to others, there is little purpose to our own lives. Those who live only for themselves eventually shrivel up and figuratively lose their lives, while those who lose themselves in service to others grow and flourish—and in effect save their lives."

He went on to say, "I am confident it is the intention of each member of the Church to serve and to help those in need. At baptism we covenanted to “bear one another’s burdens, that they may be light.” How many times has your heart been touched as you have witnessed the need of another? How often have you intended to be the one to help? And yet how often has day-to-day living interfered and you’ve left it for others to help, feeling that 'oh, surely someone will take care of that need.' We become so caught up in the busyness of our lives. Were we to step back, however, and take a good look at what we’re doing, we may find that we have immersed ourselves in the 'thick of thin things.' In other words, too often we spend most of our time taking care of the things which do not really matter much at all in the grand scheme of things, neglecting those more important causes."

So, in order to focus on "those more important causes" and to put aside unnecessary "busy-ness", I am going to ask myself each day, "What have I done for someone today?" Hopefully I will be able to forget all the things that I so easily grumble about and try to brighten someone else's day - a family member, a friend, a neighbor, a stranger.

President Monson shared a birthday gift that a group of primary children had given him - a jar of "warm fuzzies". Every time they did something kind for someone else, they put a warm fuzzy in the jar...which I have adopted as my visual reminder.

Here's my version of a warm fuzzy jar. Today is my first day and I have "1" warm fuzzy in my jar. I got to babysit Adam & Alyssa for Leslie for a few hours & really...they brightened my day!

So this is my quest - to fill my jar with warm fuzzies as I ask myself each day - what have I done for someone today?

And my last thought, "Verily I say unto you, Inasmuch as ye have done it unto one of the least of these my brethren, ye have done it unto me.”