A Consecrated Life

con·se·crate  (kns-krt)

tr.v. con·se·crat·ed, con·se·crat·ing, con·se·crates

1. To declare or set apart as sacred: consecrate a church.

2. To dedicate solemnly to a service or goal. 

3. To make venerable; hallow: a tradition consecrated by time.

Dedicated to a sacred purpose; sanctified.

As an adult, I have struggled to accept myself for who I am.  Actually, I have struggled as a woman.  When I have looked around at other women, I find that I generally don't fit into any kind of stereotype, especially the "stay-at-home" variety.

You know the woman.  

Her life is spent in service.  

She bakes cookies for her child's bake sale, and then stands outside for hours, selling the wares for pennies.

She takes meals to families when the mother is sick.

She babysits bucket loads of children for other women who are busy doing something else.

She bakes bread and hands it out to teachers and bus drivers.

She has a fantastic listening ear and everyone loves her.

She sympathizes when you tell her of your struggles while unbeknownst to you, she is going through something in her life that is far more difficult.

She's everybody's friend.

She lives the definition of a good woman.  When she goes to church, she has quantifiable deeds of service.

I wish I were this woman.  I see women like this, and I wish my heart was the same.

I wish I wanted to sell cookies at the bake sale.  Instead, I want to be the one teaching the Bernoulli Principle to those 10-year-old Scouts.

I wish I could take meals to families, but it's all I can do to get a meal on my own family's table.

I wish I wanted to babysit, but honestly, watching other people's kids stresses me out, and I'm immersed in taking care of my own children.

Okay, I do bake bread for my kids' teachers and bus drivers.

I have a good listening ear, but I don't always know what to say to people when they are struggling.  

I have the best, most loyal friends, but very, very few of them, and I wonder  ...  should I have more?

When I go to church, I don't fit the standard mold of a good woman.  I can't quantify my service in pans of brownies, and hours of babysitting, and this has led to many feelings of insecurity.

A couple of days ago, I was having lunch with two women, and I was telling them of my struggles to feel of worth.  I believe one of the women was completely inspired to explain something to me that she had learned lately.

When we look at our lives, it's important not to compare ourselves to other people for the main reason that we will never stack up.  We will never be as perfect as other people appear to be.  

How should we measure ourselves?  By our level of consecration.

To what purpose are our lives dedicated?  Why do we do what we do?  Are we living consecrated lives?

Immediately after each of our children were born, John and I offered a prayer, telling Heavenly Father that we dedicated our children to Him.  We promised him that we would do everything in our power to make them great servants to Him.

This is my purpose.  I want to help my children learn to love their Father in Heaven, and want them to want to serve Him.  Whether they serve him by being missionaries, or by helping others (And behold, I tell you these things that ye may learn wisdom; that ye may learn that when ye are in the service of your fellow beings ye are only in the service of your God~Mosiah 2: 17), it doesn't matter.  As long as they are serving Him.


I have done my best to set a good example.  On a personal level, I may not be baking brownies, but I spend hours preparing my Sunday School lesson, and the kids actually like having me as a teacher.  I may not be the babysitter of choice, but I have given thousands of hours to all kinds of children, teaching them to sing and helping them feel the power of music.  I may not be on the phone much, listening to others, but I give an hour a day to Glo, sitting together, reading from the Book of Mormon and discussing the doctrines of the gospel of Jesus Christ.


What's important is our offering.  It's a personal thing, and it won't be the same thing as anyone else.  My offering is my time, and my children.  I have given everything to them so that they can be the people that they want to be.  Depending on our circumstances, we might be able to give a lot, or we might not be able to give so much.  It doesn't matter.  All that matters is that we give.

So, when I step back and look at my life, I know that I don't fit the mold of the typical good person.  My acts of service aren't always very obvious, nor traditional.  However, I feel like I am good with God.  I could stand before Him today and tell him that I gave everything, and I mean everything, to Him.  I have done my best to live a consecrated life, and that's all I can ask of myself.