Changes

If you're familiar with any members of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, it may have come up that their congregations are organized geographically. Members attend church at the time and place that is assigned to their neighborhood. They work and serve with the people in that congregation until they move or the boundaries are adjusted.

Our congregation has just experienced one of those adjustments. It's huge, actually, completely splitting my home congregation in half and merging us with a neighboring congregation who also got split in half. In the change, Bobby was released from his calling as bishop. All of the members were released from their church callings/obligations at the same time. The newly called leaders of the newly formed congregations are now hard at work seeking inspiration to fill the vacancies (youth teachers, Sunday School teachers, music leaders, etc.) that will need to be staffed when we meet for the first time next Sunday.

I'm a mixed bag of emotions, but mostly relieved and hopeful. Bobby's work as bishop was hard on me. Hard on my relationship with him. Hard on my relationships with other folks in the congregation. That difficulty came with blessings, though, as we worked together to do the Lord's will. I felt a greater measure of peace and resilience as a mother. I learned to accept help, which taught me better how to offer it. I've seen parts of myself change. Our family has grown. It's only been two years, but I think I've matured a lot more than my usual two years' worth.

I'm also feeling a little stress with the change. I had a nightmare last night that I had volunteered to teach the 4-year-olds class but completely forgot about it until an hour before church was supposed to begin. The class had 12 kids in it, 8 of them with serious behavioral problems, and all of my family just happened to be attending another church that day for some bizarre reason. I was alone, totally unprepared, and I couldn't even find the manual to start preparing a lesson. I woke up and had to cry a bit before seeing the nonsense of it all.

But, the dream inspired me to reach out to our new Primary leaders (whoever they may be...) through our new bishop and offer my help for this Sunday. I'll probably be there anyway, since James is none too keen on change, or Primary in general (just yet). And if I were the new Primary president for a group of kids I only half knew, then I'd be frantic just about now :)

Whew. Change is kinda uncomfortable at first, even if it's just shedding skin as we grow. I'll leave you with this little gem:

Matthew saw the bike rack and instantly turned it into a ship. Sound effects and everything.