“I’ll be OK. I just need to get organized!” These are words I’ve heard and words I’ve said countless times. I have spent a lifetime trying to get my time and my stuff in order. I felt it was the key to everything. You can imagine my joy when I ran into the Lord’s command to “Organize yourselves” in Doctrine and Covenants.
The verse reads: “Organize yourselves; prepare every needful thing, and establish a house, even a house of prayer, a house of fasting, a house of faith, a house of learning, a house of glory, a house of order, a house of God;” (Doctrine and Covenants 109:8)
These words validated what I felt to be my prime directive. In a panic toward perfection I read the words “organize yourselves” and I was off to the races. It takes vigilance to get organized and stay organized. I’ve certainly worked hard at it. So many of us have.
My understanding was that order must be the “first order of the day” and that when I accomplished that happy state then I could move on to establishing “house of prayer…fasting…faith…learning…glory…order…God.” But I couldn’t seem to get off first base.
After taking each of the 12 Steps, I came to this verse again with new eyes. Even though it had been displayed in stitchery and calligraphy in my home I don’t think I’d never read it properly.
What I came to realize was that in my excitement to create order in my world I had read the mandate, “Organize yourselves” and not understood that what followed was Jesus’ instructions on how this task might best be accomplished.
Organizing ourselves seems to be the divine outcome as we focus on establishing:
1. “house of prayer,” by more continually directing of our thoughts to the Lord
2. “a house of fasting,” by practicing continued abstinence
3. “a house of faith,” by taking action based on our trust in God
4. “a house of learning,” by seeking and recognizing daily personal revelation
5. “a house of glory,” by fostering gratitude and more consistently standing as a witness of Him
6. “a house of order,” by being painstaking in our obedience to His direction
7. “a house of God.” This is the precious result of organizing ourselves in this manner.
These are the tools that close the gap between our need to be organized and our great desire to establishing a House of God. One of the definitions of “organize” is “to assemble and make ready for use or action.” The goal is to prepare a dwelling place and a work place for the Lord. This verse is about something much bigger than having a place for everything and everything in its place. It’s the answer for those of us who are always organizing and never realizing the divine outcome – a house of God!
By Nannette W.
Posted Friday February 6, 2009
Copyright 2008 by Nannette W.
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It is such a good thing that “organize” DOESN’T mean get everything filed, put away, cleaned up, and perfect–or else I would be in big trouble. It helps me to remember the contextualization of things. In the day this was written there were no organizational gurus, day planners, or rubbermaid filing systems. There were husbands and wives to care for one another, children to be nurtured, and always God to lead and direct.Guess what–the word to verify this comment is MANTI. Ha!