Lighting the World

I love this initiative from mormon.org SO much!  The missionaries secretly knew about it in advance and we have some connections with them so I knew it was coming.  I printed out that calendar up there for my family and for the YW, and heavily promoted it everywhere the opportunity presented itself.  I couldn't even wait for December 1st to get here so I could start serving and LIGHTING the world!  

Day 1 came and I spent the day anxiously looking for ways I could serve and waiting for inspiration to come, but nothing did.  I didn't carry anything heavy or open any doors for any old people.  I didn't let anyone sneak in front of me in line at the grocery store.  I didn't write any letters or send any uplifting texts.  I just ran errands and had a plain, old Thursday.  :(

So at the end of #LIGHTtheWORLD Day 1, I had done nothing LIGHT-worthy enough to post anywhere or to tell my kids about and I hadn't even quietly brought any additional LIGHT to any small part of the world. 

I knew there would be a potential opportunity to do something good on Day 2, but I was dreading it.  Someone had asked me to sing How Great Thou Art for a funeral...by myself! with less than 24 hours notice!  (I tried so hard to say no, but something about a stronger will on the other end of the phone makes me cave every single time.)  Unfortunately, the song was less than stellar, and I left there thinking, "Oh, forget it!  I'm never answering another unidentifiable phone number.  I'm burying my talents from now on so I never have to sing again.  And I'm officially giving up on #lightingtheworld."  For heavens sake, I couldn't even LIGHT a dang funeral, how in the heck was I supposed to LIGHT the whole world?  (Sometimes when I get frustrated and discouraged, I have been known to do that thing where babies and bathwater all go flying out the window together.  It was like a mass purge here on Friday night!) 

It's been a few days, and I've calmed down about my disastrous musical number.  But I've also realized that this particular initiative to #LIGHTtheWORLD may not have been designed specifically to motivate me.  

I kind of already like to LIGHT stuff.  I try to make an effort every day to post something uplifting or inspiring somewhere on social media.  Almost every day I try to act on the random generous thoughts and impressions that come into my head so that someone else might feel happier.  I've been living this initiative for years.  It just hasn't had this particular hashtag attached to it, and it didn't come with a list of suggested ways to LIGHT things.  I just want to leave sunny footprints behind wherever I go.  

I love this initiative and I love what people are doing with it.  I love that my IG and FB are filled with daily scriptures and posts of the various ways people are finding to serve one another.  I would way rather see those posts than all the political rants or Elf on a Shelf escapades.  

But I am personally opting myself out of the daily suggestions on that calendar up there.  I'm better at spontaneous service and LIGHT, I think, than trying to figure out how to help someone see on Day 3 and feeding the hungry on Day 7.  

I love LIGHT.  I love service.  And I love the Savior.  Everyday.  Not just for these 25 days prior to the celebration of His birth.  So, all of you who are inspired by this, please keep LIGHTING things.  It makes my heart spill over with gratitude that people have the ability to be so kind and filled with the Spirit in such a unified way.  It is absolutely inspiring!  But the calendar is too much pressure for me.  If all of you keep covering December in LIGHT and LOVE, I will try to pick up the slack on the random days in January or August when the hashtags have all been forgotten.