Never let the power lie dormant

This post is part of the General Conference Odyssey. This week covers the Priesthood Session of the April 1997 Conference.

I've been watching our lawn the last several weeks as it comes out of dormancy. It's so interesting as it changes—first it is SO brown and dead it looks like it will never come back! And then little patches become greenish, and then larger patches—and finally it's all green and growing like crazy, so fast you can hardly keep it mowed! (And then the summer heat comes and sometimes some of it dies again. But we won't talk about that.)

I thought about that when I read President Faust's talk. He says, "Brethren, we must never let the great powers of the holy priesthood of God lie dormant in us."

I think it applies to women too, as we exercise the power of the priesthood that comes through our covenants, and the power of faith that President Nelson has been trying to teach us about. And I like that way of saying it, because it implies that it's already there, waiting and ready to be accessed! We just have to activate the power by keeping our covenants and being willing to act.

I recently got a new calling in my ward (Primary President), so I've been thinking about how often that faith-based action is something we have to pretty much initiate ourselves. Heavenly Father doesn't seem to want us to wait to act until we know what to do! Ha. It seems backwards, and I guess sometimes we do get instructions, but many times we have to get the ideas for our initial fumbling steps just in the midst of our own uncertainty. Every day I think, "I'm not sure what I'm supposed to be doing next! But…I guess I could try making a list of the children…" or whatever comes to mind as I'm casting confusedly about. And then as I act on that, I start to feel more confident, and I begin to get inspiration on the next thing to do. 

Did I already talk here about the "ready, go, set" mentality Sam teaches his students about in Animation? He teaches them that you can't get everything in place, perfectly lined up and conceived and planned, before you start working on a project. You can do some planning, but after that, the only way to progress is to just START! You can't actually be successful until you start, falter, fail, make course corrections, improve, and keep moving forward toward your goal.

Heavenly Father seems to have something similar in mind for us by having us do SO many things before we feel ready. Baptism, temple covenants, marriage, parenthood, and callings all come before we're fully "prepared." We have to start trying to figure things out, start having experiences, before we can really learn anything useful! It goes against my nature—I would really rather wait to be Primary President, or any other thing, until I knew how to do it well! But that's not how it works, apparently.

President Faust brings up this same idea when he says:

Many years ago we were taught by President Harold B. Lee a fuller meaning of the direction from the Lord: “Let every man stand in his own office, and labor in his own calling.” He said: “It becomes the responsibility of those of us who lead to let, to permit, to give opportunity for every man to learn his duty. …Help is not helpful if we assume the prerogatives that belong to that individual.” This fuller understanding also means that presiding officers of the Church should be careful not to usurp the responsibilities and duties of those they are called to direct.

And why shouldn't we "usurp" the responsibilities of those we lead? I think it's because they, too, won't learn until they act! I've been thinking about this with myself and my primary presidency, and it makes me want to think about how I can "give opportunity" for my own children to do more in their "own offices," too. It wouldn't be good for them if I allowed the power of their faith "go dormant" by denying them the chance to act for themselves!