Last week I received a call from a member of the bishopric with the infamous words:  “Would you be willing to speak in sacrament meeting on Sunday?”  In a sense, I consider it somewhat of an honor, and I was thrilled for the opportunity.  As monthly themes for sacrament meeting, our bishopric has selected to use the articles of faith.  We must be ahead of schedule- the topic for the meeting was the 5th Article of Faith:  We believe that a man must be called of God, by prophecy, and by the laying on of hands by those who are in authority, to preach the Gospel and administer in the ordinances thereof.

I actually enjoy preparing lessons and talks.  I put a great deal of thought into the topic, and I try to add as many original ideas as possible.  In this case, I decided to focus mainly on sustaining our leaders and ideas about how we do that.  I also discussed our own callings, both formal callings where we are sustained and set apart and other callings or stewardships that we have such as spouse, parent, and home/visiting teacher.

Well, the youth speaker, with pages of notes, probably finished in less than 2 minutes.  I was the second speaker.  I always feel so inadequate when I get up there.  I enjoy thinking, but for some reason what seems so crystal clear in my mind often comes out of my mouth in more murky tones.  My biggest problem is dynamics- I must be rather monotone, because it appeared to me that half the congregation was asleep.

Afterwards, I got the obligatory “good job” kind of comments.  I guess it was ok, but it didn’t go off as well as I had expected, so it is always a little bit of a let down.