bishop

We sat across the desk from our Stake President two Sundays ago and were told that although there were more than five men in our ward more qualified to be the Bishop, the Lord wanted Tony. We hadn't seen that one coming. I have thought a million times how much I don't want to do this. Each time an even stronger emotion of wanting to do Heavenly Father's will squelches my insecurities and fears. It's not like we haven't been blessed beyond words. It's not like I don't know how to keep the family going without Tony around very much. It's not like I haven't had the example of my Grandpa, Uncles, brothers and Father to show me that it is possible to strike a balance between family, work and church.

Tony's parents drove all the way from Idaho Falls to be here for his setting apart. It meant a lot to us to have them here. In his blessing, Tony was specifically blessed to know and love the people he serves. He was told that teachings and rememberences from his past would come to his mind at necessary times. He was counseled to pay special attention to the Young women as they are under particular attack. He was blessed to be able to counsel people to become self reliant as he dealt with welfare needs. He was instructed to prioritize his duties as a father and husband. His counselors were given equally powerful blessings.
Tony has had two call-days this week, is 100 charts behind, was out late with interviews last night and up at 5:00 this morning to see kids off to youth conference with donuts. I guess my primary role is to see how seamlessly I can make things run and to be a voice of reason. Tony said the best advice he got was to be a Bishop like he plays racquetball. With ferocity when he's on the court and without too much thought when he's off. The best advice I think we got was from the previous Bishop. When we asked him how we could possibly do this he said simply, "do what your doing, just do it better." That didn't seem so daunting.

In the last two weeks Tony and I have felt very united and cohesive. If this is a compensatory blessing of church service it is awfully nice.