Magnifying Our Callings: More than Measuring Up

Magnifying our callings isn’t as daunting as it sounds.

If you are a member of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, chances are you have a calling, or an assignment to serve. Callings come in all different shapes and sizes: they range from ward greeter to stake president to home teacher to everything in between. Regardless of your particular calling and its ensuing responsibilities, you have been taught this principle: magnify your calling. But have you ever wondered what that injunction actually means?

Author Faith S. Watson asks and answers a similar question in her Ensign article “How Could I Magnify My Calling?” In her article, Watson says that her calling as an early-morning seminary teacher caused her to wonder about the meaning of “magnifying one’s calling.” She felt underprepared and inadequate compared to the teacher that she was replacing.

After study and prayer, Watson realized that she didn’t quite understand the meaning of the word magnify. She says, “I went to my dictionary and read, ‘To cause to be held in greater esteem or respect.’” From this experience, Watson surmised that “magnifying her calling” didn’t mean that she needed to focus on her own feelings of inadequacy.

Instead, she says, “I increased my efforts to keep the commandments, nurture my family, pray, and study the scriptures. As I did these things, I realized that if I prepared diligently for my class, prayed to know the needs of my students, and shared my testimony and love of Heavenly Father and His Son, I could help them learn the gospel and strengthen their own testimonies. I also realized that I would be magnifying my calling.”

Magnifying our callings doesn’t mean that we have to try to measure up to those who have served previously in our calling. Instead, it means that as we focus more on the Savior, he will magnify our abilities and make up for any of our feelings of inadequacy.

Read Faith S. Watson’s article “How Could I Magnify My Calling?” to learn more about magnifying your own calling.

Source: Ensign

—Leah Emal, Mormon Insights

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Find more insights

Read or watch “Magnify Your Calling” for advice from President Gordon B. Hinckley on how to enlarge the potential of your calling.

Read “New Harmony: What It Means to Magnify Church Callings” by Jerry Earl Johnston to learn how we can magnify callings, even those that seem mundane.