As I was reading in Matthew this week I was struck by the Savior's calling of the twelve apostles when He says in Chapter 4 Verse 19
"Follow me, and I will make you fishers of men." and in Verse 20 specifically when it says "And they straightaway LEFT THEIR NETS, and followed Him."
I was thinking about how admirable it was that they "straightaway" left. I'm sure there was a little bit of contemplation but for the most part I think they immediately recognized the importance of the calling, and the significance of the man making the call and so they acted quickly and followed. And they left their nets, dropped what they were doing, dropped their livelihood, dropped the life they knew to be normal and followed Him.
And because the gospel is so amazing and can be applied to any situation I then applied that principle to myself and my life... I left my nets. I left my family, my friends, my everything normal and followed the call of my Savior, to come out and be a fisher of man. I continued to think about how leaving your nets is a daily decision for each and every one of us. I think the purpose of a net is interesting, it is something used to catch something. What nets are we caught up in each day? What distractions do we have that keep us from following the Savior? What nets can we decide to leave?
Out here in Tennessee I am here to fish for men and women who are "only kept from the truth because they know not where to find it. ( Over the last week we have tracted, visited less actives, talked with members, and have left our nets and asked others to do the same, to come with us and follow Christ. Here are a few examples of fish/men and women we caught:
-We had one of our less actives come to church Sunday and it was so exciting to look down the hall and see him standing there. I nearly ran to meet him and tell him how excited I was to see him there.
-Another less active elderly lady (and when I say elderly I mean 100 years old to be exact) has left her nets and told us how she goes to the Baptist church socials even though she is the only Mormon and she talks to people there, and that they listen and respect her. She told us of a dream she had where she saw the Savior in the town square and went over to the Baptist church stood where the preacher stood and told them to follow her because she knew where Christ was and she would show them and they followed her, she was so disappointed when she told us that just as they were about to turn the corner to where Christ was she woke up. I was struck by her dream and told her that she is leading those people to Christ by her example and the fact that they listen to her and respect her.
-A stubborn son of a gun man that is more active than some of the members in the ward but refuses to be baptized (to the extent that the ward has a joke that they are going to hog tie him and throw him in the font) was in the gospel principles class and made some comments with the conviction that made me wonder why he isn't the one teaching the class
-A 10 year old autistic boy that originally didn't want anything to do with us when we visited his house was running around church giving hugs and love to everyone including us
-A woman we found while tracting who could barely hear let us into her home to share our beliefs and even though we shouted our message and she told us the same story about her daddy taking her to church in a mule drawn wagon 7 times she told us to come back anytime and she'd always let people in who were "doing the good work of the Lord'
And those are just a few...
I love being able to be an influence for good in someone's life knowing that the blessings of their obedience will be showered down as they continue diligent and faithful. I do recognize though that sometimes people are caught in nets that they don't want to leave. After tracting for five hours one day there were many doors that were shut in our faces, a couple of them without saying a word, they opened the door took one look at us and shut the door immediately. They are caught up in their own lives, their own beliefs, and their own priorities that they don't want to even think about leaving them behind to listen to what we have to say and ultimately to follow Christ.
So I want to challenge us all to find a net in our lives and leave it!
Follow Him because He can do so much more with us then we can.
Love you all, pray for you daily multiple times.
Love,
Hermana Hall
P.S. EVERYONE LOOK UP THE SONG "IT'S NOT ABOUT YOU" BY DAVIS HANDLEY, IT IS OUR JAM!!!! SUCH A HUMBLING REMINDER!!!!
P.P.S
After all this talk about fish I feel I should mention that on Pdays President gives us permission to go actual fishing!!!! EEEE super excited at that possibility, just need to find a member with the gear and you better believe I'll be a fisher of men and a fisher of fish!!!!
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