But that's nothing new to you; well, 99% of you. I started serving as a Church-Service Missionary for The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. I was set apart in July of this year, and soon started my service at the temple.
It's been four months since that time. Four months, almost to the day, that I have been set-apart as a service missionary- July 15th. A service mission is a little different from the two-year and eighteen-month missions you hear about for men and women, respectively. The process of my mission started with my Bishop. From there, I met with my Stake President. My Stake President was ultimately in charge of my mission call, deciding and working out where I'd serve; a full-time mission call comes from Church Headquarters, assigned by inspiration from one of "the Brethren" (A member of the First Presidency or Quorum of the Twelve Apostles), who receive that inspiration from our Heavenly Father and Savior, Jesus Christ.
**And just for the record, my call is no less than a mission. It is inspired as well. My mission may be a little different, but it's still service.**
While preparing for my mission, I met with my stake president a number of times. One of those visits, we discussed that we'd like to make my mission as much of a "mission" as possible; in association with dating, movies, music, television, etc.
At first, I was hard on myself. I wanted to be a missionary, I wanted to serve, and I thought being pretty strict on my association with media would help me like I'd hope. It took me less than a week to realize how much of a challenge that was; working at the temple half-days, living at home with my family, and being in a YSA ward. With help from my parents, and from my Stake President, I have defined some rules for myself to be a missionary and to not drive myself crazy.
I put out my last post on both Twitter and Instagram, and decided I'd still be on Facebook, and post uplifting things. I came up with a system: my nephew, Camden, is three-years-old. If he could watch a certain movie, I could too. So in essence, wiped out the possibility of watching those "grown-up" movies and TV shows. I stand by the "Camden-appropriate" method. It was a good idea for a missionary wanting to live the best way, without being a full-time missionary in a new area, being with a companion and strictly focusing on the gospel- which is nowhere near a bad thing!
I've finally come to terms. I can't be a missionary like we always think of. And that's okay. There's nothing wrong with that. I'm not being disobedient and I'm really grateful that lately, I've been able to rely on the Spirit, and see the guidance from our Heavenly Father. My mission is specifically designed for me, and I feel like a big part of the missionary work I've done in my lifetime has been through social media- mainly this blog and Facebook.
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I was blog-hopping one day; I found a friend's sister's friend's blog. I don't know the writer of this blog, but I bookmarked the post because I found it perfectly in line with my thoughts today. The link can be found here.
My intentions were to stay off of Twitter and Instagram. You wouldn't see any posts from me for a year, the duration of my mission. I'd just get on Facebook to post uplifting things. But I'll admit, that's where I've fallen short. I browse my News Feed. I try to limit myself on Facebook. It's something I'm working on. I've been thinking about getting back on Instagram again for a while- with the same intentions as Facebook- post good things and don't stay on very long. While the big challenge is to limit my time, I finally decided improve my social media exposure- not to browse those sites, but to share goodness, using the internet for good while staying away from the bad. (Read something cool about sharing goodness here)
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| One reason I decided to start sharing goodness was because of the recent news of my cancer treatments, I thought it would be good to express the good I've found from the treatments. But that was not my main purpose. |
There is a lot of bad out there. But there is also a lot of good. Satan wins that much more every time someone decides not to act for good. I am fighting against the adversary; I am fighting for the Lord; I am sharing goodness.
Join with me to share the good you see around you. If you are not religious, share something of good, with the intent to make the world a better place. It doesn't have to be with social media, it can be with anything. Do a service for someone. Improve a life. Maybe even your own.
As always,
#keeprunning
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| #sharegoodness |
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