My Dear Sisters,
Because February is such a "short" month, March sometimes creeps up on us without our noticing. I heard many sisters on Sunday gasp a little when they realized that there was only one more day to get their Visiting Teaching done. I totally understand. I needed to visit one more sister, myself.

When we talk about tithing, a large portion of us say that the tithing check is the first one we write. When we think of Sundays most of us think of our church meetings and getting there on time (or maybe even a few minutes early). When we are working on a special project, we often think "I need to be ahead of this and ready, so I don't have to hurry at the last minute."

What is it, then that keeps us from staying ahead of the game with our Visiting Teaching? Why is it that we are hurrying at the last minute to finish? Do we think our sisters don't realize and know that they have been left to the end of the month? Often, we go to visit and find that they have been ill or had an emergency. Had we contacted them sooner, we might have been able to help.

How much better would it be to start our visits at the beginning of the month and then have the rest of the month to relax and contemplate the visit. If we are there at the beginning, the Spirit can work with us on the needs of our sisters. We will be more in tune with what we can do to help them. It is a lot like tithing. When you take out the 10% early, there is usually enough to go around for the rest of the month and we receive blessings to help us make it, financially, through the month. It seems to me that the Lord would be able to bless us equally as much if we were to visit early in the month and have the rest of the month available for other things. Our minds would be able to focus better if we don't have the persistent thought "I need to visit my sisters" running through our heads all month.

I am sure you have heard or seen the object lesson of putting the large stones in the jar first and then adding the smaller and smaller stones and finally adding the sand. I am pretty sure that visiting teaching is one of the larger stones and I am hopeful that this message will sink into my brain, as well. Please feel free to forward this blog to the sisters in your unit.

Love to each of you.

Pat Romney