My husband received the call to be the bishop 3 weeks before he was actually sustained. That was certainly the longest three weeks of our lives. For the first two weeks we felt incredible opposition from the adversary. There were feelings of inadequacy, doubt, anxiety, discouragement, self-pity, regret, all topped with feelings of being completely overwhelmed.
Fortunately the Lord of the Rings didn't let us down and provided the perfect mantra for this moment as well. Do you remember the scene where Frodo is bemoaning his fate and complaining that the burden of the ring is just too hard and wishing he could give up and just go home? Sam says matter-of-factly, "There is nothing for it Mr. Frodo." It didn't matter how bad Frodo felt, his task had to be done. There was no one else who could take his place, there was no other option. There it was.
I must have said to my husband a dozen times that two weeks, "There is nothing for it Mr. Frodo." He certainly wasn't going to back out or turn down the call. He had received his own witness that the call was from God. We couldn't move. Even though we thought about it! There was only one thing left to do. All he could do was keep moving forward and do his best. Sometimes you just need to hear someone say, "There is nothing for it, Mr. Frodo." Or you need to say it to yourself.
It doesn't matter how bad you feel or how you wish things were different. When there is nothing for it, quit complaining, pull up your bootstraps and keep moving. After those first two weeks, a member of the Stake Presidency announced in our ward that we would be getting a new bishop. He encouraged the ward members to pray for this new bishop and his family even though they didn't know who they were praying for.
Almost immediately, I felt like I could breathe again. The prayers of these ward members made a tangible, incredible, and undeniable difference to our family. For my part, I felt that just maybe this was something we could do after all. I am so grateful for those prayers, prayers for an unknown, struggling and scared future bishop and his family. Somehow that last week we knew that they loved us, they supported us, God was mindful of us and everything would be okay. And it is. Doesn't it make you wonder, how many people are praying for you?
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