Shalls and Shoulds
The story is told of a door to door salesman who came to a
house with the front door partially open and piano music coming from
inside. On the other side of the street
in a vacant lot several boys about 10 years old were busy playing a wild game
of soccer. He looked inside and saw a
boy about 10 years old, obviously dirty from playing soccer sitting at the
piano and pounding the key board. A pair
of soccer shoes laid on the floor by him.
From the sound, it was evident he was practicing. The salesman knocked
on the open door and asked, “Little boy, is your mother home?” The boy looked up and said, “What do you
think?”
I have observed that there are a number of “shalls.” in life
and in the gospel. The little boy was
obviously busy with a “shall.” “Shalls” are
inflexible and have a somewhat unhappy connotation of force, but, still are neccessary.
In the gospel, “shalls” revolve around the principles and
ordinances of the gospel. For example
(and this may be an over simplification), the “shalls” in the gospel are: faith in Jesus Christ, continued repentance,
baptism, gift of the Holy Ghost and endure to the end doing your best to live all
the commandments. Also, partaking of the
weekly sacrament and receiving your temple ordinances and covenants are “shalls.” Add to that a special focus on the
commandments of: sharing your substance with the poor and needy, love your
fellowmen and forgiving others and you pretty well have covered the “shalls.”
There are an infinite number of “shoulds” in life and in the
gospel. “Men should
be anxiously engaged in a good cause, and do many things of
their own free will, and bring to pass much righteousness;” (DC 58:27) You may not fully realize the eternal
importance of the “shoulds” but you are promised:
19 And if
a person gains more knowledge and intelligence in this life through
his diligence and obedience than another, he will have so much
the advantage in the world to come.
(DC 130:19)
For projects we designed At Sunrise Engineering, we wrote
specifications and prepared drawings for work to be performed by
contractors. I found that giving the
Contractor flexibility to perform work would unleashed his ingenuity and
efficiency. That almost always resulted
in a better final constructed project for the Owner than if I tied the
contractor’s construction efforts down to everything as a “shall”. For example, for a pipeline construction
project in a town, the town wants the least amount of disruption to the
citizens as possible during construction. To accomplish this, if I write, “There shall
not be more that 500 lineal feet of open trench during pipeline construction in
a city at any one time.” Then the
Contractor will limit his trenching and clean-up operations to 500 feet. If I write the same sentence with a “should”, then the contractor might find a way to keep
the town dug up for less time resulting in less disruption but with longer open
trenches at any one time or other betterment to the project. We learned to write performance
specifications using a “shall” regarding the final product and method
specifications using a “should” for the manner of accomplishing it. This generally resulted in surprising
initiative and ingenuity.
A good example of “shalls” and “shoulds” from the scriptures
is Lehi receiving a shall, “…go unto the house of Laban, and seek the records,
and bring them down hither into the wilderness.” (1 Nephi 3: 4) This is a performance specification. Nephi and his brothers then planned the step
by step execution of the commandment. Interesting,
they failed twice before the Lord provided a way after Nephi went on faith with
no plan, “...And I was led by the Spirit,
not knowing beforehand the things which I should do.” (1 Nephi 4: 6)
Christ commanded us to do missionary work, “…go and teach
all nations…” (Matt 28: 19) this is a performance specification, a
“shall.” The step by step activities to accomplish this “shall” is missionary
work. It consists mostly of things and
tasks we “should” do. I am amazed over what
can result from personal ingenuity as we work out the step by step activities
to accomplish the commandment. We can do
great things as we bring to pass much righteous on our own free will. The
members and the full-time missionaries work together “to labor in the vineyard
for the salvation of the souls of men.”
This responsibility is full of “shoulds.”
To assist in working together, I have asked the full-time missionaries
attending Ward Council or the Missionary Coordination meeting with the ward
mission leader that they must:
·
be on time,
·
be prepared with a neatly written Progress Report,
·
Talk about something new and insightful about
investigators.
Missionary work in Ward Council must be in unity with those
present. The Lord defined unity when he
said:
2 Hearken, O ye elders of my
church whom I have called, behold I give unto you a commandment, that ye shall
assemble yourselves together to agree upon my word;
3 And by the prayer of your
faith ye shall receive my law, that ye may know how to govern
my church and have all things right before me. (DC 41: 2-3)
You are there to agree on his word, you are not there until you
agree with each other or to champion a cause.
The Bishop who presides, determines what the final decision will be and
those present walk out of the meeting in unity.
The missionaries are involved in the Hastening of the work
of Salvation as are also the members and Ward Leaders. Full-time missionaries are available for use
by smart ward leaders to assist in all aspects of this work. This work is full
of “shoulds” and consists of:
·
Member Missionary Work
·
Convert Retention
·
Activation
·
Temple and Family History Work
·
Teaching the gospel
Paul understood the value of personal ingenuity and
initiative for people trying to do what should be done as he wrote to Philemon:
21 Having confidence in thy
obedience I wrote unto thee, knowing that thou wilt also do more than I say. (Philemon 21)
And after Eli said to Samuel a third time to go lie down
and, if the Lord speaks, state that your servant heareth.
19 ¶And Samuel grew, and
the Lord was with him, and [he] did let none of his
words fall to the ground. (1
Sam. 3:9-19)
Missionaries will realize better success with members by effectively
doing all you should do to bring to pass much righteousness.
President Robinson
The following is a short test of information from the
handbook, PMG and satements from Elder Ballard and Elder Hallstrom last
September 2014 in Zoetermeer and Frankfurt.
- (True or
false) The ward council meets
regularly but is recommended by Elder Ballard and Elder Hallstrom to meet
weekly.
- (True or
false) The Bishop may invite the full
time missionaries to attend a segment of Ward Council.
- (True or
false) At Frankfurt during the
lunch break, Elder Ballard sent for me. I entered the room, he sat me down
and told me to get my missionaries to the Ward Council meetings, and while
there talk about the investigators and enroll members support.
- (True or
false) Under the direction of the
bishop, the ward council develops a ward mission plan. It should be brief and simple.
- (Who said) “We are here to find more, commit more
and baptize more”
- “Teach the doctrine of the
restoration (lesson 1) to everyone.”
- “You become powerful
teachers not by, studying, but by teaching. Teach every night to members if you have
to. Conversion always starts with
what you feel.” Elder Ballard
- (Who said) The years will teach you more than your
days ever knew. Elder Dyches
No comments:
Post a Comment