Friday, August 24, 2018

An Example of Effort and Success

In President Henry B. Eyring's most recent Priesthood Session talk, Inspired Ministering, he told the story of a Home Teacher (it was still called Home Teaching at the time) who might have thought that he wasn't being successful. He continually tried to reach his Home Teaching families, but most of them didn't respond or responded negatively. Still, he reached out to them regularly, despite being rebuffed. As a result, when one of the families needed the church's help, that family knew who to contact. The help was granted, and, as a result, at least one member of that family was eternally blessed and became a blessing in the lives of many others. However, even if this response never came, I think I would have said that this Home Teacher was successful, whether any of his Home Teaching families ever responded or not.

When evaluating us, God cares far more about our efforts than about our results. Of course, the results are important to Him, and He wants to save as many souls as possible, but He won't hold a lack of results against us as long as we're really trying. Whether that family ever responded or not, that Home Teacher was successful, even based only on the frequency and regularity of his attempts to reach out. He did what he could, and that's all God ever asks of any of us.

So, if you're having a hard time with something God asked you to do, don't be too hard on yourself for struggling with it, and don't be too hard on God for giving you such a difficult task. Instead, do what you can, and trust that God will make up the difference or at least commend you for your efforts, whether they yield any results or not. Success is nice, but when God measures our success,what He's really measuring is our efforts.

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