MaeLyn's Musings

What do the words "Individual Responsibility" mean to you? What are the things are we responsible for? These questions set the tone for the lesson that I taught in Relief Society yesterday: Chapter 23 from Teachings of Presidents of the Church: Joseph Fielding Smith . We listed many things we are responsible for on the board, everything from teaching our children and doing laundry to gaining a testimony and missionary work. Then we focused on our temporal responsibilities: … The Lord said, “Thou shalt not be idle for he that is idle shall not eat the bread, nor wear the garments of the laborer.” [ D&C 42:42 .] That is good sound sense, isn’t it? Why should a man in idleness partake of the industry of the industrious—provided that this man who is idle, is in a physical condition that he can work? I am not at all in sympathy with any kind of movement that tends to destroy manhood by encouraging men to be idle, and I don’t care what age that is. It doesn’t matter h...

Recently, I have come to a realization about myself. I don't know how general it is, but I have a suspicion that it applies to most of us. This is it: The more likely that someone else can or will take responsibility for something, the less likely that I will - unless I have strong feelings that I can do it better than anyone else, or it is something I naturally enjoy doing. For example: if I am in a class or a meeting, and someone asks for a volunteer for an assignment, the speed at which I raise my hand depends on the size of the group, and the speed of others to raise theirs. If it is a very small group, I am much more quick to volunteer than if there are many. In a larger group, the longer it takes for someone else to volunteer, the more likely I am to volunteer myself. This applies to societies we live in as well. In medieval times, a nobleman would have serfs living on his property, that he took responsibility for. These serfs often didn't have many resources or ed...