Let Others Serve Us

 

Relief through Alignment with the Lord

By President Camille N. Johnson

Relief Society General President

Alignment of our heart and mind with the Savior isn’t a free pass to a life of ease. Instead, it is a conduit to His relief...

To be aligned with the Savior, we need to give ourselves over to Him. We must avoid clinging tenaciously to our burdens and trying to carry them alone. Rather, we must make our burdens accessible to the Savior and allow Him to provide His relief...

Letting Others Serve Us

The Savior asks you to serve because in doing so, you align your heart and mind with Him. That alignment brings His relief and the ability to carry your mortal load. Jesus Christ not only asks you to serve but also asks you to be served—to graciously receive the ministering sisters and brothers, friends, and even strangers who are doing their part. Would you deprive them of the blessings associated with their covenant keeping?

I am, admittedly, not very good at this. The “I’ve got this” mentality overtakes me sometimes.

Shortly before general conference last year, when they knew I was extra busy, the sister and brother who minister to our family offered to bring some soup. They sent a kind text to my husband and me. True to form, I quickly responded to say we were good and no soup was needed. My gracious husband, on the other hand, responded with a message that soup would be great, inviting them to minister to us in that way. I should have done better.

In anticipation of Doug’s surgery in St. Louis, I asked for the name of a stake Relief Society president I could call there, just in case I had some extraordinary need for help. That was way out of my comfort zone, but I asked and received the number for Sister Diana Taylor, who is a stake Relief Society president in the area.

I called Sister Taylor and explained why we were coming to St. Louis and assured her I would let her know if and how I needed her help.

The next day, she sent me this text: “Sister Johnson, 10 hours is a long time to be waiting alone while Brother Johnson is in surgery. I would be happy to come to the hospital to be with you if that would help. I could come the whole time or part of the time. We could share the Spirit of Christ as we pray and remember the blessings of a loving Father in Heaven, the blessings of sisterhood, the blessing of families and of service.”

Perhaps you’ve guessed my first reaction: “I’m good. I’ve got this alone. I’ll wallow in my sadness by myself!” And I was just about ready to send a response that declined her invitation—until I remembered what I had preached in the April 2023 general conference and thought that I ought to practice it:

“How does the Savior relieve us of the burdens of living in a fallen world with mortal bodies subject to grief and pain?

“Often, He performs that kind of relief through us! …

“… We are a conduit through which He provides relief.”¹

I responded with this text message: “I don’t want to trouble you at all. Perhaps you and I could have lunch together. That would be a nice break from the talks that I am writing.”

The Lord sent Sister Taylor (right) to minister to me while I was waiting for my husband to come out of surgery.

Sister Taylor and I walked to a restaurant. We sat outside because it was a sunny day and enjoyed lunch together. And in the end, I trust that both of us found needed relief.

I was alone in St. Louis. Doug was in a surgery lasting more than 10 hours. How was the Savior going to help me, to relieve me of loneliness and frustration and worry? He sent someone to minister to me, someone who was magnifying her calling and keeping her baptismal covenant by comforting someone who stood in need of comfort (see Mosiah 18:9–10). If I had failed to receive her, I would have failed to receive Him...

Whenever we do anything to bring relief to others—temporal or spiritual—we are bringing them to Jesus Christ and will be blessed to find our own relief in Him. In doing so, we align our hearts and minds and goals with God’s.