Do these five missionaries look foolish to you? If you are thinking to yourself, "why yes they do!" That is a correct answer, these five missionaries, myself included, are "Foolish" and I am so grateful to be called such.
This past week in one of my studies I was reading from 1 Corinthians 1:27 in which the apostle paul says "But God hath chosen the foolish things of the world to confound the wise; and God hath chosen the weak things of the world to confound the things which are mighty" As I read this I was thinking, "why would God choose foolish people?" It became immedietely clear to me that he was reffereing to missionaries as those foolish things of the world.
As a missionary, I am a living witness of this. I am not that smart as to the things of this world, I do not know that much by the worlds terms, I am still in the process of learning these things. There are a couple of things that I do know though; I know that my Father in Heaven lives and loves me, I know Jesus Christ is the Savior of the World, and I do know that the Book of Mormon is the word of God. I may not know much more, but luckily, I don't need too. As a missionary I have talked to so many people with a higher IQ than myself and many that have much more knowledge, and yet I have been able to teach them and bring a joy into their life that they have never had before, and in turn they have thanked me for the blessings in they have recieved because of the gospel in their life. This is direct fulfillment of that scripture.
Many people have asked me before, why do they send out missionaries when they are 19 years old? Wouldn't it be better if they sent out missionaries when they were like 50 so they know more? As I read and pondered this scripture I realized. It isn't about how much we know. It isn't our sophistication or our knowledge that gives us power to teach the gospel. What gives us power is our faith and our humility, these are the great qualifiers.
I know that by "Small and simple things, great things are brought to pass." (Alma 37:6-7) As we are willing to serve the lord, no matter how "Foolish" we may be. The lord will take who we are and use us for his divine purposes.
I like this entry, especially that last scripture. It is very encouraging to think that our efforts, though small, to make the world a better place will make a difference in the end. If enough people band together to do the small and simple things, it will change the world!
ReplyDeleteThanks for the beautiful post. And I may be a wee bit older than you, but I'm still "foolish" and feeling much better about it! Carry on!
ReplyDeleteMissionaries are strange. It's a fact. But it doesn't matter when you are serving the Lord.
ReplyDeleteMany times while teaching the gospel I was called things like foolish and stupid. And you know what? Maybe these people had a good reason to say what they did. A 19 yr old preaching the gospel to men who had more than 19 years of study under their belts. But just as Samuel said when the Lord called him to the ministry, "Speak for thy servant heareth", I too answered the call without hesitating. And because I did I know that when we are on the lord's errand, we are entitled to his help. But if what I did was a foolish thing, it was the greatest foolish thing I ever did.
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