Fulfilling an Assignment

My friend, Kathy K., is the Primary Chorister, aka Singing Time Leader. She is truly amazing! In the 2-1/2 years that I've been teaching, I think she has only repeated how she has presented the music two or three times. She always makes singing time interesting!

Yesterday was one of the repeats. She brought a small spray bottle that was about half filled with apple juice. While the children are singing, she looks for an individual who is fully participating and reverent while doing so. When the song was done, she would "wet their whistle." My great-nephew who is 8 and has only been to church a couple of times in his life, but who can read quite well, was singing his heart out along with everyone else.

Last week she had made some butterflies with pipe cleaners and pieces of a gauzy fabric in different colors. She hung the butterflies from the ceiling at varying heights. The teachers were invited to send someone from their class (one class at a time) to pick a butterfly. Each had a song number taped to the back of it. We sang the songs, but she also had created "paddles" with different ways to sing. The one that Isaac remembered best was "Sing like an Opera Star," but she also had "Sing like a Bee" (buzz or hum), "Sing like a Cowboy," and "Sing like a Baby." She allowed the children to decide for themselves just what that meant.

Other times she has divided the group into teams. She drew a playing field for football on the board. She moved a picture of a football up and down the field based on how each team performed. Another time, she hung two strings from one end of the room to the other and had paper boats. Each class was considered its own team and chose a representative. Two at a time, the representatives would compete against each other while the rest of the children sang a song-- the goal was to blow their team's boat from one end of the room to the other. The team that reached the other side first (or got closest to the goal) was declared winner. Another time, they were invited to blow a ping pong ball across a pan of water.

Every week she comes up with something different. I've been in wards where I thought the chorister did a good job. They were always prepared and had visual aids. They even had some "go the extra mile" ways of teaching. I've held the calling myself, but I was young and really had no idea how to make things interesting for the children. I think I'm better at teaching a lesson and probably best at teaching adults. Kathy does such an amazing job, she should probably be out there teaching the rest of us how to do it.

What impresses me most is the thought and effort she puts into filling what many might consider a relatively unimportant position-- assuming that one subscribes to the theory that there is a hierarchy of importance when it comes to church callings. Personally, I find them all challenging. Administrative positions might seem the most important. But, in reality, such callings exist to maintain a sense of order in the various organizations. When we consider the eternal nature of our callings-- it is probably those callings and people who truly touch our hearts and inspire us to follow the example set by Jesus Christ that have are the most influential.

Superheroes don't just preach that "every calling is important." They truly understand that the positions that seem the least important in terms of hierarchy are often the ones that have the greatest impact on the lives of those they serve. They don't care what their calling is; they care about the people they are called to serve. They aren't satisfied with "doing a job." They also know that some days they have more to give than others. They just give their best whatever that may be-- and they appreciate the efforts others make as well.