How Much is Too Much?

My friend and I have had three of our four visiting teaching appointments this week.  This is an assignment I do because I know I should, I recognize the need for it, but I really don't have a tremendous love for it.  Luckily at the moment, I do enjoy the ladies we visit.  That hasn't always been the case.

And maybe it is because we are busy on Sundays and dont' have the chance for any social interaction, really, during the block of church meetings, but our appointments this week seemed excessive to me.

We had three visits and it took us three and a half hours to do them.

When my visiting teachers come by I'm lucky to have them in my home for 20 minutes.  They are heavy on the teaching and slim on the visiting.  We seems to be the opposite extreme.

I do enjoy catching up with these ladies who are also my friends--in the church sense of the word.  But an hour or more is too long to be at their homes.  Am I wrong here?

I know that I have only a few things wherein I can be perfectly obedient at this stage of my life.  And I try to be that with this assignment.  But when I am tired and my family has to make their own dinner because I am still out long after I thought I'd be home, I have guilt and it makes me less apt to be as perfectly obedient.

Maybe next month will be better.  But I worry it won't.  This is (sadly) becoming a pattern, I was hoping we could avoid.

Confessions of a Slacker Visiting Teacher

The least favorite thing I have been called on to do I completed again yesterday. I go with a friend, who lives nearby, and we check on a few other friends as we go. I enjoy all the ladies I see. But visiting teaching is not my favorite calling. Far from it.

In my mind I know this is what I am supposed to do. I have been asked to do this. I have been assigned to do this. I know many others who just rave about getting to go each month. I don't exactly dread it but I am not counting down the days as I look forward to another month either.

I think my hang up with it is that it feels like I am intruding on people. They are busy, (they must be, right?) and I am busy and my partner is busy. Trying to affix a meeting time with that many schedules seems so contrived. Of course, it is. But it still feels like I am pushing my way into some one's personal space and personal time.

The messages are fine, and we give them. Some months I relate better to them than other months, but we give them each time.

I do notice how much older I am than one of the sisters we see--and I feel distanced from being of service, as all my comments tend to be on the "I remember when" slant.

Then we see another sister who is a bit ahead of me and I feel like I have nothing new to bring her in terms of the message as she has probably "Been there, done that".

Another, our third sister, is gracious and welcoming but I feel like she is not so interested in our message but has let us come visit just so we will quit calling her. This stop may just illustrate my own insecurities in sharing with Gospel with less active members in my neighborhood, as I don't want to have her feel we are "pushing it down her throat".

I do feel better when we finish and I report to our VT supervisor. But as soon as I hang up with her I feel impending doom, as the whole scenario will have to played out again in a few weeks.

I do it because I know I should, but I have guilt because I hear about people who love visiting teaching and I certainly don't. My hang-up with it isn't any personality issues with the sisters we see, or with my partner (who is delightful and lovely), or even with the little children who accompany us. It is just my own tendency to avoid uncomfortable situations--and I feel like I am essentially forcing myself and the message on others, and that is uncomfortable.

Still, month in an month out I make the attempt, so I can say I am fulfilling the calling, doing what I should. But in a perfect world, I would be assigned visiting teaching ladies who I am already meeting at the Barn for lunch and who already know and love me and will take care of me when I need it, and will accept the favor in return. But that would be too easy, on everyone.