Two Brown Specks in a Sea of Grey

Anyone raised in our church will appreciate this for what it's worth. For anyone not, the quick easy background is that we have an unpaid ministry in our church. It typically falls to the more mature gentlemen, say 40 plus, to be the congregation leaders. It's not a rule, just the way the cookie crumbles. That's a stage in life when you don't have newborn babies or toddlers to chase in the church hallways or juggling of that sort of thing so it works better. You are more available for the more time intensive jobs, meetings and leadership. Sometimes, though, there is a need and younger men are asked to serve in those leadership callings. This was the situation in Houston. Brian was called to be a counselor to our bishop while we lived in Houston and was a invaluable help and advocate for the Spanish speaking members of our fun congregation. He was able to translate endless meetings and liaison the needs and concerns of the members and he loved the opportunity to serve them and help the leadership there. Once you have served in one of those leadership positions, you are forever, well, inducted into the "High Priest Group." This means the rest of your life, you get to go to what I have always referred to as "old man class" instead of with the younger group of guys when we split up after sacrament meeting each week. It really isn't a big deal usually, but sometimes it changes things for us. When the younger group, the "Elders" plan their BBQs and social fun, we often get overlooked from the invite list because our family no longer shows up on their printed roles. We usually find out anyway since our main social group all goes and we crash their parties. Kids are always welcome at these parties because everyone has little people still. Last Friday night the Stake High Priests had their annual dinner social. We decided to get a babysitter and go to dinner. We'd never been the last 3 years because of the inconvenience of getting a babysitter. No one there has little kids, they all have grown-up kids in college or at least high school. We also had a new young family move in that is in our same situation, so we carpooled with them. It was fun to walk in and recognize so many people and we enjoyed the dinner and the company. The after dinner entertainment was several amazing musical performances by some regionally well known musical talent in the area that attend some of our stake congregations. We sat in the back of the chapel and as I looked around the audience, I realized our heads were almost the only two specks of brown in a vast sea of grey and white. It was neat and humbling in a way to realize what amazing company we were in. Past bishops, stake presidents, patriarchs and other time tested leaders. What a great place to be. If I wanted to pick the cream of the crop, they filled that room. And we were privileged to be there in their company.