How to Handle Overwhelming Callings... and Life

I read an interview with Sis. Julie B. Beck in last month's LDS Living magazine.  I love, appreciate, and admire this woman very much.  She spoke about carrying the burden of her calling as the general president of the Relief Society:

“It’s never not been overwhelming.  I don’t think I’ve slept through a single night since I’ve had this calling. I can never take my head off and put it to rest somewhere and put on my resting head. I can never take these shoulders off and put them on a shelf somewhere and put on my resting shoulders. It’s always with me, but I’ve become more comfortable with how uncomfortable it is. The Atonement covers our ineffectiveness and insufficiencies, and it’s my whole dependence on the Lord that makes it possible for me to become more comfortable with the burden.”


Later she said:

"It’s  overwhelming and I’m not equipped. I have limited abilities. We can’t expect to be ‘fit companions of the Gods,’ like Eliza R. Snow said, if we haven’t had to do the work to become that. A lot of that is lonely work between us and the Lord and calling upon His Atonement to help us through our experience. The journey is what makes us.”


Relief Society  The entire article can be found at:  http://ldsliving.com/story/68005-lds-living-interview-with-general-relief-society-president-julie-b-beck/print

I'm sharing her words because I thought you might benefit from her wisdom and perspective as much as I have.