Spiritual Janitors - Guest Post

It's All About the Maintenance

I've been thinking a lot about maintenance of late.  One of my children has decided to major in facilities
management, which I took to mean that his aspiration in life is to be a janitor.  I was a little disappointed in his decision.  But maybe--just maybe--I was wrong.

One of the reasons I may be wrong about the whole janitor thing occurred recently.  I was privileged to attend a week of teacher training at a local, private school that happens to be LDS-based.  One of the speakers was the head of the school's facilities management and securities.  As I listened, I was impressed by this well-spoken, intelligent man and his capability and caring.  Not only did he not fit my own person judgment of a "janitor," he was truly magnifying his job.  In addition to making sure the building is beautiful and well cared for, he has been preparing the school for a natural disaster, possible intruders, and other possible emergencies.  I haven't ever thought of a janitor as being concerned about the future.  It was inspiring because he was doing his job not only for the income for his family but also to provide a clean, beautiful place in which children can learn more about the world and its Creator.

This talk and the others that I heard during the week helped me to see that how I live the gospel has, in many ways, been childish.  Just like a well cared for building, my testimony is always going to need repairs and updates.  I have lived the last 25 years maintaining my seminary testimony, when in reality, I really ought to update it to a more current, adult version.  Once I wrote down a testimony from a brand new (adult) member of the Church, and then compared it a year later with her more developed testimony.  In many ways, I found I was jealous because her testimony was different--deeper--than mine, but I couldn't figure out why.  I now know it was because she had not only maintained her beginning testimony, but she had immersed herself in the gospel and quickly updated it.

For example, I have always had a fairly decent, albeit superficial understanding of faith in my life.  But instead of simply learning about faith so I can give a Relief Society lesson on it, I need to steer my life by faith.  I also need to really focus not only on saying my prayers, but listening to the answers and then acting upon the thoughts I later have.  Over time, I can learn the difference between revelation and my own wishful thinking based on the consequences--which requires me to pay attention not only to the problems at hand but also to think and study what has happened to me before.

Now that I know that my spiritual maintenance is more than ready for an update, how will I go about it?  I'm going to participate in the goal of my stake president, which is to read the entire Book of Mormon between September 1 and December 31.  I will recognize the blessings my family has received because we've consistently paid our tithing, even though it's been really, really tight.  I can see (because I'm finally looking) the hand of God throughout not only my own personal history but the history of our world.  And so I must admit:  I'm excited to embark on a spiritual quest to become a better person.  I'll even be proud to call my son a janitor.

This post was written by the wonderful Cathy. I have known her for quite some time now... and have to say, she's pretty great. Her kids are pretty awesome too.