My Epiphany while Serving


I had a cool experience the other day, something that I didn't even know was a thing. Did you know that they occasional have sign ups to clean the Conference Center in Salt Lake City? I didn't either until last Sunday, seriously so cool! Anyways, it was a struggle to even get to the Conference Center because the traffic was crazy! We were supposed to be there at ten o'clock at night to help and there we were stuck in traffic at ten thirty. Determined to get there we kept going until finally we happily pulled into the parking lot at ten forty. My anxiety of course was not letting me have the greatest experience with being late, I tried to be as positive as I could about it but inside I was slightly panicking. Random thoughts like, what if they don't need us to help, or we should of just turned around and went home, or we wasted all this time for absolutely nothing kept running through my head. 


(Oh the joys of anxiety...)
Everything worked out and they did need us to help, and seriously it was one of the coolest experiences of my life to be able to vacuum in the main floor area of the Conference Center. It made the traffic and everything worth it. And half way through vacuuming my rather large assigned area I had an epiphany. We had shown up incredibly late, and we were pretty much the last small group to come in, but I realized that it didn't make our contribution to help clean the 21,000 seat conference center worthless. We were a valuable contribution and the three of us (me and two friends) made a difference, a small difference but we had made a difference. I watched as some people had to leave early (cleaning finished at 12:30 am) and they still made a valuable contribution as well. And I realized just how much that applied to my mission, it was almost as if the Lord was telling me for probably the millionth time now that my mission meant something. That my five months truly had made a difference. And so what I didn't "finish", I truly believe that there is no end to a mission, sure you take off your name tag, but for the rest of your life you serve the Lord to the best of your abilities. Your mission truly does never end. You are and forever will be the child of a King and he loves you. It doesn't matter how you serve him in this life, what matters is that you serve him with all of your "heart, might, mind and strength," in whatever way you are called to assist with the work. Never forget He loves you! Forever and always, and nothing can ever change that. 
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Shelbie Drake

I am a college student at Brigham Young University trying to wade through this crazy thing we call life with my mental illness. I have decided to share my story of trying to deal with mental illness in the hopes that it may help others.

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