Stake Meeting Humor-

I really hope that God has a great sense of humor if not I’m in real trouble. There are commandments, principles and ordinances that don’t change. Then there’s policy, procedure and just different styles of administration, which seem to change with whom ever is in charge. The problem or blessing is that in the same council or organization there may be different opinions on what should or shouldn’t be done.

Stake council is a meeting that takes place once a quarter it is attended by the stake presidency, high council and the presidents of each stake auxiliary. Our stake Relief Society President is a wonderful woman, but just like everyone else she has her opinions. There’s a time during the meeting that those attending can bring up what ever they feel is important to be discussed by the group. She felt strongly that to many people were bringing treats to church and that the kids are more concern with the treat than what is being taught in the lesson. She believed that this practice is causing a financial strain on some members – this started a conversation, after it was done the Stake Presidency excused the auxiliary presidents so the next meeting could start. Now it didn’t happen very often but someone had brought a couple of boxes of Ding Dongs and gave them to the stake president.

At the start of the next meeting the stake president handed out the treats with a chuckle. Now if something can go wrong chances are that it will – this wonderful sister got to her car and realized that she had left her purse with her keys in it under her chair during the first meeting. She returned to the room opened the door and found fifteen men unwrapping and eating the Ding Dongs. You should have seen the faces of everyone involved, like a kid being caught with his hand in the cookie jar.

One of the purposes of high council meetings is for names to be presented for approval to be called to stake and ward positions. A few months before the event in question there was a sister that had unexpectedly passed away in one of the wards. After a short period of time the brother remarried. The Bishop of that ward wanted the new sister to be called to a stake position having to do with name extraction, genealogy work and redeeming our kindred dead.

The high councilman that is assigned to the ward involved presents of names. The assigned high councilman didn’t know the sister personally so he looked at the ward directory and submitted the sister for approval. There were a couple of individuals in the room that were from this ward and had a slight concern that the name submitted was for the deceased sister. One of our quick witted high councilman pointed out that she would be great at the job because she is already on the other side and could get the answers needed to finish the work. For the next couple of months whenever this high councilman presented a name for approval it became tradition that he was asked if they were living or deceased before a vote would be taken.

As important as these responsibilities are we also need to find humor and joy in the service that we render. Then when it’s not essential to our salvation we need to remain open minded and not take ourselves to seriously.