Checkmarks & Empty Boxes

Recently I was looking at the checkmarks on the attendance sheets and thinking about the women behind the checkmarks and empty boxes. (I am secretary in Relief Society, our church's women's organization.)

There are the stalwarts, people who come every Sunday, people you can depend on to always be there, to be available to serve and to participate. Then there are people who come every once in a while. Then there are women who never attend. Their boxes are empty.

Each box, whether checked or empty, represents a daughter of God who is greatly loved.

What are the challenges reflected by the blank boxes? Is this a woman who is ill and physically can't come to church? Is this someone who doesn't have a car and needs a ride? Does she have a husband who doesn't want her to attend church? Does she work on Sunday? Has she deliberately stepped off the gospel path and doesn't want to come back? Has she lost her way and is just waiting for someone to reach out to her to help her come back? 

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Christ used parables to teach about the importance of looking out for the one. In Luke 15 he tells of going out to find the one who is lost. 

"What man of you, having an hundred sheep, if he lose one of them, doth not leave the ninety and nine in the wilderness, and go after that which is lost, until he find it?"

"... what woman having ten pieces of silver, if she lose one piece, doth not light a candle, and sweep the house, and seek diligently till she find it?" (Luke 15: 4, 8)

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Becoming a disciple of Christ means we serve others, as He did. 

"... and now, as ye are desirous to come into the fold of God, and to be called his people, and are willing to bear one another’s burdens, that they may be light; Yea, and are willing to mourn with those that mourn; yea, and comfort those that stand in need of comfort, and to stand as witnesses of God at all times and in all things, ..."  Mosiah 18: 8-9

We pray, ponder, and discuss how to help those whose "boxes" are blank. What are their needs and wants and challenges? Home teachers and visiting teachers are prayerfully assigned to give watchcare and support. Countless acts of service are rendered. 

So much more than a checkmark or an empty box - a daughter of God who is greatly loved.