Get anxiously engaged

"Living our best life beckons us to dwell in this valley focused on what we can do and what we have instead of what we can’t do and what we don’t have."

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For years LDS singles have snickered while reading D&C 58:27-28.  After all, this is the famous scripture about “being engaged.”  Given our family-centered LDS subculture, everyone gets the joke.

Like all jokes, there’s an element of truth here.  Marriage is an important element of our Heavenly Father’s plan.  Where the joke ends, though, is where the reality begins.  Yes, LDS singles should be engaged to be married, or at least actively engaged in becoming so.  But the power to do that is not entirely within them because the agency of others is involved.  Dwelling on that reality fills many LDS singles with frustration.

Of course, D&C 58:27-28 is really about taking more action in promoting goodness within our spheres of influence.  And that is within the power of every individual.  Living our best life beckons us to dwell in this valley focused on what we can do and what we have instead of what we can’t do and what we don’t have.

Keeping that positive focus may prove challenging.  Yet three areas of emphasis can help LDS singles to maintain that positive focus on bringing goodness into the world.

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Engage a personal ministry

Adopting your own personal ministry is one of many themes this program has embraced.  Find your own corner of God’s garden you can tend, and devote yourself towards nurturing blossoms from that ground.

By giving yourself to whatever noble cause is right for you, you align what you can do and what you have with an outward outlook.  As you help others to tackle their problems, you will find increased strength and capacity to tackle your own.

And an unanticipated bonus may await.  By focusing on the positive and bringing goodness into the world, LDS singles make themselves more attractive to a potential eternal companion.  They may even meet said companion in the course of pursuing their personal ministry.

Regardless of whether or not that happens, life offers more joy for LDS singles when they embrace a personal ministry.

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Engage your local leaders

LDS singles bring even more goodness into the world when they seek to serve their local leaders.  As we discussed last week, local leaders will be more inclined to help LDS singles when those singles seek to help them.

LDS singles can especially help their local leaders by teaching them how to minister more effectively to LDS singles.  Local leaders who minister more effectively can bless many lives.  But that can’t happen if they don’t first understand exactly how to minister more effectively.

This is where we LDS singles can play an important role.  We LDS singles can educate our leaders.  It’s for that very reason I wrote a book on how to minister more effectively to LDS singles.  This book shows everyone — stake leaders, ward leaders, and the singles themselves — what part they play in more effective ministering to singles.

Using this book to help our leaders is very simple.  Download the book yourself and then give them a copy.  Or send them a link which they can use to download their own copy.

And here’s the best part: The book is absolutely free.  I never intended to profit from the book.  I wrote it solely to improve life in our wards and stakes for singles.  No price tag should guard the gate to that knowledge.

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Engage other LDS singles

Of course, that book isn’t just for our local leaders.  It’s also for us LDS singles.  The support networks many LDS singles need will never exist unless we LDS singles improve our own attitudes and perspectives.  That best happens when we engage each other in discussions and conversations that change minds, touch hearts, and transform lives.

Think of the goodness withheld from our world when we attend singles activities with the primary purpose of satisfying our own agenda.  I’ve discussed previously the perils of the Dating Forum as well as the pitfalls of the Activity Club.  We need the outward focus of the Support Network as we seek to follow the Savior.

We do that by helping other LDS singles change the way they see singles activities.  We can also foster that change by inviting other LDS singles to join us whenever we recognize and take opportunities to help other LDS singles.

Whether by adopting a personal ministry, serving our local leaders, or supporting other singles, LDS singles have many options for improving their lives through improving the lives of others.  Focusing on bringing goodness into the world, whatever the area of emphasis, ennobles us and strengthens us to withstand the challenges of our own lives.  And that will bring more joy in our journey.

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