The Laborer in Zion

This past week I had a dream that caused me to think back to an experience I had when I was 11 or 12.  It was during the summer and my friend and I were discussing ideas about what we could do to make some money over the summer (which we probably intended to blow on some useless item).  Around that time two members of my ward, Charles and Helen Anderson, had a mission farewell.  They were going to serve in Chile for 18 months.  Because the Andersons had a very large lawn and yard that would need to be taken care of, I saw this as my golden opportunity.  So I brashly approached Brother Anderson and offered to take care of his lawn while they were gone (all without my parents knowledge or approval).  Later that night, Brother Anderson came over to the house and talked to my Dad about it and agreed to let our family take care of their yard while they were gone for $60 a month [read Dad doing the majority of the work; Rob doing quite a bit; and me tagging along], which we did for the next 18 months.

At the time, I remember being embarrassed when Brother Anderson came over to the house to talk with Dad.  That was the first moment when I realized that perhaps my 11 year old intellect had failed me in my rashness to pursue this money-making venture.  But in the intervening years I had largely forgotten about this even.  And so, unfortunately, it wasn't until I started to think back on things this week that I realized just exactly where I had gone wrong.

My parents had raised me to know that we should treat the servants of the Lord with a high level of respect, and that we should lighten their loads whenever possible.  I grew up with stories about how the Lord blesses those who serve them, whether it be through meals or other blessings.  Every time there was an opportunity to feed the missionaries, my Mom signed up.  And whenever there was a new missionary in the ward, my Mom and Dad found some money somewhere in there often-meager budgets to help send this new elder or sister on their way.  Indeed, when I served as a missionary, I was the beneficiary of countless sacrifices by both friends and family who understood this same principle.  But for some reason, when I was 11 I saw dollar signs where I should have seen an opportunity to bless the servants of the Lord the way that my parents had taught me.

Of course I was not very old, and hopefully have grown a lot wiser and more sensitive over the years.  But as I thought about this experience, I was reminded of my cousin Sherri's daughter, Ali.  For years, Ali has used babysitting as a means to generate some spending money, with one exception.  She has never accepted money when she was babysitting for a couple that was going to the Temple.  As a young teenager, Ali has understood something that apparently escaped my 11 year old brain:  that we have a duty and an obligation to ease the burdens upon the servants of the Lord as they do the work of the Lord.

Coincidentally, I read these words of Nephi in the morning after waking up from that dream:  "But the laborer in Zion shall labor for Zion; for if they labor for money they shall perish" (2 Nephi 26:31).  While there was probably nothing wrong with my being compensated for helping to care for Brother and Sister Anderson's yard, there was a problem with the underlying reasons for my labor.  I had not been seeking to relieve a burden from Brother and Sister Anderson in an effort to serve them as they went out to serve the Lord.  Consequently, I had not been laboring for Zion.

I'm grateful for the experiences of the intervening years and the numerous examples of others who helped me to begin to learn how to labor for Zion.  May God bless all of us to learn how to more fully ease the burdens of the servants of the Lord, that Zion may "increase in beauty, and in holiness" with "her borders [being] enlarged" and "her stakes...strengthened" (D&C 82:14), and that we may prove fit inhabitants for her.

Brett