Day #11 – Guest Contributor Calee Reed

April 2, 2015 by Amanda 143 Comments

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Today the amazingly talented, fabulous Calee Reed is sharing her thoughts with us on our Walk With Christ. My daughter and I first learned of Calee last year at Time Out For Girls. Calee’s messages and music opened my daughter’s eyes to the world of Christian music. I can truly say our lives have been changed since knowing Calee. Just a little bit about Calee: Calee Reed grew up in San Diego, California, and was taught to sing by her mother at a very young age. When Calee’s mother passed away in 2011 after a battle with cancer, Calee decided to write her first CD, The Waiting Place, as a tribute to her. Her upcoming album, What Heaven Feels Like, features inspirational songs in Calee’s fresh style and releases in summer 2015. Calee and her husband, Shaun, live in Salt Lake City and have one adorable daughter, Violet .

You MUST watch Calee’s amazing music video inspired by the story of her mother.

You can follow Callee on Facebook and Instagram (@caleereed), blog, and website

From Calee

I found myself frazzled and tired last week as I chased my two year old around our neighborhood park. She’s sweet and darling, but she has GERD (a condition that she was supposed to have outgrown by 3 months old) which causes her to wake frequently at night…which causes us both to be grumpy and exhausted most of the time. That morning I was feeling especially overwhelmed and inadequate. When will she outgrow this?? How can we be expected to function normally when our sleeping schedule is so erratic?? Why haven’t we found a cure yet for her issues?? Frustrated thoughts tumbled around in my head.

My new visiting teacher had asked me to meet her at the park that morning so we could chat about this month’s message. I was on the verge of texting and canceling (in favor of escaping back home to my sweatpants and couch) when she appeared. Smiling and friendly, she talked about her kids and asked about my family. After only a few minutes, I found myself cradling my wailing baby and apologizing for needing to take her home to attempt a nap. “Oh, that’s alright!” she sweetly responded, “Let me share a quick part of the message with you!”

She proceeded to share a few thoughts from President Dieter F Uchtdorf about patience:

“Patience is not passive resignation, nor is it failing to act because of our fears. Patience means active waiting and enduring…Patience is not simply enduring; it is enduring well!”

“Patience means accepting that which cannot be changed and facing it with courage, grace, and faith. It means being ‘willing to submit to all things which the Lord seeth fit to inflict upon [us], even as a child doth submit to his father’ [Mosiah 3:19]. Ultimately, patience means being ‘firm and steadfast, and immovable in keeping the commandments of the Lord’ [1 Nephi 2:10] every hour of every day, even when it is hard to do so.”¹

I could tell that she had read the message prior to us meeting, and had purposely chosen those few thoughts to share – even though she couldn’t have known my specific situation prior to us meeting. The words from that inspired man sunk deep into my heart. I had read and shared the message with my own visiting teaching sisters earlier in the month, but at that moment I was ready to hear a different message that Heavenly Father had sent to my heart. The questions that had been plaguing me a moment ago found themselves quieted in the light of new perspective. I was so grateful that this woman from my congregation had taken a moment to acquaint herself with those words and share them with me.

As I’ve contemplated the ways I ‘Walk With Christ’ through service in my daily life, I’ve come to the conclusion that one of the most important ways I can serve is through being prepared to share the messages of the Savior with people around me – just like my visiting teacher did with me.

I have the incredible opportunity to travel around the country with some intensely spiritual, inspired individuals as a presenter with the Time Out for Women program through Deseret Book. I love when presenters quote scripture and the words of prophets; knowing that God sent those messages and words for me brings added peace and power when I hear them. I have watched these individuals present their prepared messages, converse backstage and with the attendees of the events and have felt so inspired by them. These individuals know the words of Christ to well, and love the words of Christ so much, that they are able to share with power and confidence specific messages from scripture and/or prophets at any given moment. It’s become a personal goal of mine to study each day to become more like them.

One of the ways I’ve found to share/serve in this way is through social media. I am the main contributor to an LDS Instagram account! It might sound silly, but searching out quotes, making memes and posting them daily for the 2k+ followers of the account brings me a lot of joy and fulfilment – plus it helps me stay on track with my goal of daily studying! Often I find myself searching for the quotes and memes in the middle of the night while waiting for my toddler to fall back asleep. It brings me peace and perspective, and brings a little light into the social media feeds of the people who see the messages each day. I’ve seen endless ward and stake accounts, accounts run by youth, accounts run by Bishops, all geared toward bringing inspired words and messages to their friends and/or congregations.

We can impact the lives of those around us with immeasurable good when we acquaint ourselves with the words and teachings of prophets, leaders and scripture and find the courage to share them when prompted. We don’t have to be scriptorians or religious scholars, we only need the desire to live up to our baptismal covenants and small daily goals like reading our scriptures, the Ensign, or messages on LDS.org, like my visiting teacher did! The healing, the light and the peace that sharing those messages and teachings can bring into the lives of others constitute service of great importance. If we truly strive to be the disciples of Christ, we will walk in His footsteps – a part of which is familiarizing ourselves with His words, and the words of His called servants, and then sharing those thoughts to lift everyone around us.

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