Quiet Rescue

Quiet Rescue                     Nov. 25, 2010        

She saved my life, not in an amazing moment of rescue, but by slow teaching and love.  I avoided a path that I believe would have resulted in death.  I met Jane when I was 16.  I couldn’t find a job so I told the women in Relief Society I would do odd jobs for them.  She heard that and hired me.  She had a house cleaning company and we went around together, just the two of us. 

She had had a pretty hard life because of the decisions she had made as a teenager.  I saw in her one of my possible future selves.  I was 16 and I just wanted to be different from my three goody-two-shoes older siblings.  I was willing to do whatever that took.  But she showed me what was down that road.  I started to see the consequences of my actions before I made decisions.  I saw that this path would end with drugs, disease and even death.  Those who try to toe the line between good and evil don’t realize that the line is moving—you just don’t notice as darkness deepens and then you are entrapped and it’s too late.  Jane told me all about it, supported me, talked me through decisions and helped me see what would make me happy, the real kind of happy.

She asked me why I wanted to serve a mission.  I said, “Because my patriarchal blessing says so.”  She said, “That’s not a reason.”  So I thought about it and realized that a mission is not about me.  It’s about God and serving others.

Jane has since then returned to some of her old problems.  I once told God that at the judgment bar I would stand between Him and her.  That she was good.  He could punish me in her stead.  I would suffer for her.  That is when I understood a small fraction of the Atonement and Jesus Christ’s love for us.  She made me who I am in many ways and it is definitely thanks to her that I am here in the Japan Nagoya Mission today.