Secret Happiness - paper and primary mail

Those who know me well from past days know that I am a paper junky. Or, at least I was back in the day. I spent quite a few thousand at Staples and Office Depot on computer desks, filing cabinets, folders, pens, computer stuff and....lots of different types of paper.

Though I've only purchased the basic printer paper the last few years, the remains of past paper overdoses still grace my home office. Some paper I've put to good use and some I've given away.

This year I've had the great opportunity to utilize my paper inventory for meaningful endeavors through the form of "primary mail." I didn't have the idea for primary mail, but I do get to implement it. Primary is where the children go during two of the three church hours for instruction. Part of that time is singing time, with a small teaching moment from one of the primary leadership and then there are a few minutes for the kids to do the prayer, share a scripture or give a little talk.

So, in walks me - the secretary. Secretary is an odd word for me, since that is the last job on earth that I should be doing (too many little seemingly unimportant details - over and over again), but I must say that it has been a good experience. I get to create the primary mail each week.

Up to this point I've been using white paper and using bright markers and stickers to make fun envelopes. But, this weekend I found more paper treasures! So, this month the kids will be getting the cool striped paper and September will be the pastel yellow and lime green paper.

We'll see about the rest of the year. I am finally getting low on the stash.

Not all the children like primary mail. Like Pavlov's dogs, they have associated it with an assignment. Some of the kids throw out the envelope after they open it and read their assignment. Some of the kids get a huge smile on their face and show everyone around them their bright envelope (this tends to be the 3-5 year olds). Others discretely save the paper and envelope in their scriptures or notebook and over time I see a flash of old envelopes when they access their materials each week.

It gives me a little secret happiness. After all, it was all just sitting there at my house gathering dust. It is amazing to see what a little paper can do when put to good use - primary mail, a letter, a special note, a picture, a drawing, etc.

If this were an analogy, it would be safe to say that we have all been given the materials to work good. Sometimes it just takes a while to realize that fact and put the materials to good use. And, over time, we sometimes find other uses for the materials that we never knew existed or just surfaced at the right time.

I imagine a lot of us have some "unused paper" in the form of personal talents. But, luckily, just pursuing one of those talents typically leads us on to many others.

Hmmm. Deep thoughts. About paper of all things.