Lose Yourself in the Service of Others

How can we as members of a family, a church, a community and a country help improve the world around us? Everywhere we look we see poverty, loneliness, fear, sadness, sleaze and filth, broken homes and hopelessness, abused children and parents who are stressed to the limit as they struggle to care for their families. In our schools and with our children we have rebellion and bullying and disrespect and the attitude that I want and deserve everything now!

What just happened with our last election where the world around us exploded into hatred and loathing and disgust for a vote or an opinion of our neighbor or friend? What happened to responsibility and accountability and respect for others?

As Christians and followers of Jesus Christ we need to take an inventory of our lives and ask ourselves what can I do to improve this world I live in. “If we would claim to worship and Follow the Master, must we not strive to emulate his life of service?”

In most cases we are selfish and only think of ourselves when it comes to service to others. We mean well and want to make a difference, but fail when presented with a chance to serve as we come up with every excuse we can to get out of doing what needs to be done. By nature are not most of us selfish with our time, our money and our desire to serve?

To quote Neal A. Maxwell on the subject of selfishness, “Since it is so common, why worry about selfishness anyway? Because selfishness is really self-destruction in slow motion.”

“If the world is to be improved, the process of love must make a change in the hearts of men. It can do so when we look beyond self to give our love to God and others and do so with all our heart, with all our soul and with all our mind.” (Gordon B. Hinckley)

To follow our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ we must minister to those in need as He did. We must comfort those who morn, visit the widow and the fatherless, feed the needy and clothe the naked, shelter those who have no roof over their heads, lift someone out of distress and encourage those who have otherwise given up. In doing so as we serve others we will find that service is the best medicine for self-pity, selfishness, despair and loneliness.

We all have our problems but when we look around us we will find that many others have problems far worse than our own. Like the Good Samaritan, we can help bind the physical and spiritual wounds of others and lift their burdens through small acts of kindness and love. When we reach out to help others, we find our true selves.

Do you want to be happy? Lose yourself in the service of others.

Donna Piippo is a Branch Member of the Seeley Lake Branch of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints