Dramatis persona*

helenhead Helen Chick

I've always wanted a bumper sticker that said "I'm a female, LDS/Mormon, Scout leading, geocaching, piano-playing, bicycling, mathematics educator with a PhD in maths ... and I VOTE"!

I think this makes me a minority group of cardinality 1!

* Since there's only one of me and "personae" is plural (I think), I've gone with dramatis persona.
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[RST] The black Sunday shoes

During a quiet moment at Church today I glanced at my feet and my black Sunday shoes. Try as I might, I couldn’t remember when I’d bought them, except to note that I’m fairly sure it was BEFORE I moved to Melbourne, which makes them over 16 years old. They’re neither flash nor fancy; just a pair of functional plain flat all-purpose shoes, that have lasted remarkably well considering they’ve been worn for over 600 Sundays. I don’t know when the word “reliable” came to be regarded as something only moderately complimentary, when, instead, it reflects all the virtues of faithfulness and enduring to the end.

IF

I think most of us are like my black Sunday shoes. We are, perhaps, unremarkable and unheralded; and yet our glory and majesty lie in that very reliability that others may undervalue. We come to our meetings, fulfil our callings as best we can, perform hidden acts of service that may go unnoticed by the world, and are “there” when the going is easy and, more significantly, when the going is hard. We are the faithful, the stalwarts, and those who provide an anchor or point of reassurance for others. We are those who endure to the end. And if it so be that, like my shoes, we are a little worn and weary and taken-for-granted, know that our works ARE known, our service IS valued, our reliability is a foundation on which the work of the gospel goes forward, and we cannot begin to imagine the full scope of the blessings that await us.

So, to all of you black Sunday shoes out there, your work and service and faithfulness are hereby acknowledged and trumpeted from the rooftops: what you do is special and spectacular and miracle-working. Well done, you good and faithful servants.

Note: The Relief Society Thoughts posts are reprints of little mini-sermon/parable/homily-thingies that I’ve been writing for the women in my Relief Society group at Church. I write them when inspiration strikes and email them out as well as posting them to our facebook page. I thought I’d add them to my blog as well. You can find others by clicking on the “Relief Society Thoughts” category label, in the grey box at the end of this post, and the most recent of the thoughts should have a list of all the posts by title at the end. Previous posts are:

An unspectacular sunset (Jul 2014)
On not doing ALL the things
(Jun 2014)
Gulp! I didn’t see that coming (Mar 2014, which sort of explains the job of “Relief Society President”)

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