General Conference, ‘Covenant Women in Partnership with God,’ October 2019 “You cannot know when, or for what length of time, your personal mission will be focused on service in calls such as mother, leader, or ministering sister. …Yet you know from scripture and living prophets that all of these assignments will come, either in this life or in the next…daughters of God must prepare for the call to be a leader for the Lord when it comes. … It takes much the same preparation when the Lord calls His daughters to be a mother.” — Henry B. Eyring
Exodus 22:20 “He that sacrificeth unto any god, save unto the LORD only, he shall be utterly destroyed.”
It’s well known in Mormonism if the phone rings with a call from the bishop, you’re being called to serve in your ward. In the majority of cases, members accept their calling as if it were from God Himself because all are ‘expected to serve’. EM, 248. Although not publicly stated, rejecting a calling places the member in a lower standing with those in charge. Additionally, members are not allowed to volunteer for any position in the Church (EM, 250).
It seems odd that you don’t know how long you’ll be doing something, nor do you know what position you’ll serve.
Mr. Eyring’s talk sounds more like an admonition reminding members they need to feed the machine, and not a calling from a burden the Lord placed on the heart of an individual.
Furthermore, this is also a reminder to women their calling includes the motherhood mandate. Overall, there’s nothing in Mr. Eyring’s talk where an LDS female could find inspiration, or the truth about what God wants for them.
Our prayer for all Mormons comes from Paul when he pleaded with the Corinthians to shun evil –
2 Corinthians 6:17 “Wherefore come out from among them, and be ye separate, saith the Lord, and touch not the unclean thing; and I will receive you”.
Ask the Mormon you know what they thought of Eyring’s talk and let them know you’re praying for them!
With Love in Christ;
Michelle
The church honestly does not care about assigning callings and what effect it callings can have on families. Some of these callings require hard work, frequent meetings, visits, preparation etc. I remember several years ago, I believe it was President Eyring, who said that families should always be #1 priority and that no member should have more than one calling. Within a month of his talk, I was asked to meet with the 1st Counselor (Bishopric) who was offering me a second calling. I mentioned to him Pres Eyring’s directive about nobody having more than one calling. The counselor kind of paused and then said that sometimes these situations just happen and that I was called to this second calling by special revelation from God.
These callings are not done by revelation, trust me. Because so many folks are leaving the church, it is not unusual for members to have 3 and 4 callings. I knew a guy in our ward that had some serious health issues; bad heart, had numerous heart surgeries, could barely breathe when walking. This guy told me that he had 4 separate callings. He said he wanted to talk to the Bishop about being released from at least one or two of these callings, but hesitated because he felt that going to the Bishop with such a request was going against the will of God.I told him that he was responsible for maintaining the body (temple) that God had given him and to allow the suffering to go on was not God’s will.