STS: On Service & Journals

Alternative Title: On Making Relationships Better

I wanted to originally title this/write about “On Diligence” but I don’t feel it’s fair to write about things in which you aren't qualified haha. So when you see a post called “On Being Perfect” watch yourself because I’ve either got somethin’ comin' or we all do haha… #secondcomingjokes

I’m also limiting myself to 30 minutes on this because it’s a spiritual thought, not a spiritual monologue. Also because of this, it means I’m mostly speaking from the heart. Gosh dang. So I’m going to need a little more love and a lot less judgment with this post.

I like to write. I don’t think I was always this way, but I like to tell stories. Or I like to hear myself talk. Actually, these are all possibilities.

Because of this, I have a lot of journals. In high school I kept sketchbooks/journals, they’re angsty little thangs, but they’re fun to look through and tell a bit a few stories going through high school dramas. I started really keeping a journal in college, because there was so much going on and I wanted to remember all of it. And it started off as just a weekly bullet point list of “thisiswhatIdidonthisdayandIdon’thaverealtimetowriteanythingbye” and occasionally I find this notebook from freshman year and it makes me laugh so hard.

But that’s beside the point.

Beyond that, I also kept a little spiritual notebook (yes: the free one from the devotional at orientation) and I think somewhere in between the two is the happiest medium. For me, you could basically title all my journals “Jessie Dean: Life As I See It; Trials, Triumphs, Awkward Moments and Spiritual Bits Volume __”. I think ideally I start every journal as yeah, this is gonna be the one… solely for scripture study. Or I’m only going to write about revelation I get from prayer or this book is going to document my spiritual journey to greatness.  Not to dig on myself but………those would be some pretty sparse journals.  I’m not saying empty. You just can’t expect to fill a book with “sacred grove” moments. Well unless you had a lifetime and a half and a very acute sense for the Spirit. But alas, I’m just an average thing myself and take every day as it comes.

But anyways, I take pride in these little books.

They’re little pieces of my life and probably one of the most cherished things I own.

If I had to choose to save my journal or my cell phone from a house fire there’s no contest.

One of the things I’ve been writing and thinking a lot about lately is service. Only because I’ve actually been able to really have a better understanding of it. To do the laziest Google search imaginable for “service define”, you get these results:

1.     the action of helping or doing work for someone

2.     a system supplying a public need such as transport communications or utilities such as electricity and water

and to impress your friends even more with your Googling abilities, you can also find the LDS definition of service somewhere online. Except I couldn’t because our Wi-Fi cuts out incredibly badly at night, so you would impress me if you found it. But I’m sure it’s really similar to the first definition.

I can’t give specific examples right now because I feel like it would bring attention to the wrong things- mainly me, as well as those involved in the story. But here are my condensed thoughts on it.

“If any man will come after me [He said], let him deny himself, and take up his cross, and follow me.

“For whosoever will save his life shall lose it: and whosoever will lose his life for my sake shall find it” (Matthew 16:24–25)

The scriptures tell us again and again and again. The thing we should all be doing? Serving one another. The people you love? Serve them. The people you hate? Especially serve them. The people who seem to have it all figured out and don’t need your meddling? They also could use service. On either end.

My thoughts on this aren’t exactly profound… why do we focus on service? President Monson says it best:

“We do not live alone—in our city, our nation, or our world,” President Monson says. “There is no dividing line between our prosperity and our neighbor’s wretchedness.  ‘Love thy neighbor’ is more than a divine truth. It is a pattern for perfection. This truth inspires the familiar charge, ‘Go forth to serve.’  Try as some of us may, we cannot escape the influence our lives have upon the lives of others. Ours is the opportunity to build, to lift, to inspire, and indeed to lead. The New Testament teaches that it is impossible to take a right attitude toward Christ without taking an unselfish attitude toward men.”

We serve others to lighten their load.

We serve others to break the prejudices we hold within our hearts.

We serve others to help them break their own preconceived ideas about us.

We serve others in the best we know how, and as Christ would have.

And we hope that some else will be willing to do the same for us.

Since moving out of my apartment in April/moving in up the canyon to work/moving out of the canyon/moving into our apartment in Spain, I’ve had five or six different roommates. All very very different. Some clicked immediately. Some… a little less than immediately. I’ve never had a bad roommate, (haha: Jackie Dean) and I’m grateful for it. But I have had roommates that stressed me out a little bit and that I think somehow I rubbed the wrong way.

But really.

As I have loved you,

love one another.

By this shall men know,

ye are my disciples.

If you show love,

one to another.

For me, little acts of service have gone such a long way. In receiving them, in preforming them… I try every day to be the best person I can be. And some days it works out almost flawlessly. Not always, but some days. Days where I feel like I’ve treated everyone fairly, respectfully, and we had a lot of laughs… while all these things are great, they keep you in neutral territory. In my mind this grazes the category of “nice” when we are all shooting for “great”. Not saying or doing anything bad does not make you good. We have to do good things and great things to find what it means to be a good or even great person.

When I am served by others, I feel good.

When I serve others, I feel great.

I know I’ve said the word “service” a half dozen times, but let me re-say it.

One of my favorite ways to find a connection or build a relationship with someone is trying to find something small I can do for them. Sometimes, this means leaving little notes. Buying them a treat. Picking up their side of the room when things are stressful. Sometimes it’s bigger. Surprising them with dinner on an impossible night of studying. Folding laundry (I hate laundry… this is “big”). Breaking out the winter gloves and shoveling a driveway or two.

I do it to build our relationship. I do it to see the light it their eyes or hear the relief in their voice. But sometimes it doesn’t happen and a thank you never comes. And in this, I place the most value: I do it because God wants me to. And if nothing else, He is happy that I did.

It’s not hard to serve others, but it takes a certain amount of attention to needs.  In the busy world of today, many won’t ask for help. Sometimes you have to be there to hear what isn’t said.

I feel like there should be a more official way to end this, but instead I just have a challenge. Pray for opportunities for service. And if you don’t feel like you’re getting anything, pray for help to recognize them, because they’re there. Seek these opportunities amongst those around you.  You don’t need to be creativity to help the needs of others :)

Anyhow, that’s all I have. Yes I went over 30 minutes.

Also consider keeping a journal haha!

I love y’all,

Peace, swag, y bizgocho all the days

Jessie