Unto One of the Least of These

As Christ taught his apostles, he taught them a very fundamental and eternal truth.  He said "And the king shall answer and say unto them, verily I say unto you, inasmuch as ye have done it unto one of the least of these my brethren, ye have done it unto me." (Matt. 25:40)  This truth is also emphasized in the Book of Mormon when it says "And behold, I tell ye these things that ye may learn wisdom; that ye may learn that when ye are in the service of your fellow beings ye are only in the service of your God." (Mosiah 2:17)  This is so True!  When we are serving and loving our fellow man, that is truly how we serve and love our God.  As a missionary, really all we do is serve others.  I absolutely love it!  I wanted to write this blog post today to talk about service, and how serving others has brought me such great happiness.  I love what Christ said in the book of Matthew "For whosoever will save his life shall lose it: and whosoever will lose his life for my sake shall find it." (Matt. 16:25)  In this scripture Christ is asking us to lose ourselves for his work.  His work is to serve and to love those around us; to devote all of our time and talents to the service of our fellow man.  Those who lose themselves, and lose their lives in the service of others will surely gain eternal life, which is the greatest of all gifts from God. In this post, I would like to emphasize two kinds of service.  There was a prophet of God who taught "...I would that ye should impart of your substance to the poor, every man according to that which he hath,... both spiritually and temporally, according to their wants" (Mosiah 4:26).  The two kinds of service that I would like to talk about are temporal and spiritual service.

So temporal service is often times what we immediately think about when we think about service.  It is giving of our physical substance.  God blesses us with a vast amount of blessings.  Some people are blessed with an abundance of money.  Some are blessed with an abundance of strength.  And others are blessed with an abundance of Love.  God gives us all of these blessings and many more, so that he can bless others through us.  That is how we make our blessings count.  God does not want us to be selfish, and to think of only ourselves.  He gives us so many blessings, so that we can bless all of those around us.  Then when we give of our abundance and give of our blessings, then we receive them back even greater.  Then when we receive them back even greater, then we can give even more to those around us.  Isn't it just an incredible pattern of life!  No matter who you are, God has blessed you.  He has given you talents and abilities, and with that he expects you to give back.  Whether it be through monetary donations, or just being there to talk with a friend in need.  There are literally millions of ways that you can serve your fellow man.  As a missionary, I love to do yard work for others.  I didn't like to do it a lot before my mission, but as I have been here, I have found the true joy that comes from that temporal kind of service.  It just makes my day to be able to put a smile on someone else's face through my service.  It is the best!

Well the other kind of service that I would like to talk about is spiritual service.  Just as we are blessed physically, we are also blessed spiritually.  There are many gifts that our father gives us which are commonly referred to as the gifts of the spirit (1 Corinthians 12:4-10, D+C 46:11-26).  There are many spiritual gifts that our loving Father in Heaven gives us.  Among these are Faith, Knowledge, Wisdom, Love, Humility, and even a personal testimony.  All these are wonderful blessings that God gives us, but much like temporal blessings, God expects us to share our spiritual blessings with others as well.  We are the conduit through which God can pour out innumerable blessings upon others.  Spiritual service is truly my favorite service.  As a missionary all that I seek to do is to help others come unto Christ.  That is such a great spiritual service.  To do this, I teach others about Christ's gospel, I share my testimony, and I help others develop a stronger Faith in Christ.  This, I believe, is truly the most rewarding service.  The great thing is that the blessings that come from this spiritual service are open to all.  Even if you don't feel like you have a very strong faith, you can still share that faith, and it will later be added upon.  Each and everyone of us has the opportunity to spiritually serve all of those around us.  As we do this and bring others unto Christ, I know that we shall find a greater Joy and Happiness in this life.  The Lord truly said "15 And if it so be that you should labor all your days in crying repentance unto this people, and bring, save it be one soul unto me, how great shall be your joy with him in the kingdom of my Father! 16 And now, if your joy will be great with one soul that you have brought unto me into the kingdom of my Father, how great will be your joy if you should bring many souls unto me!" (D+C 18:15-16)  Have a great day!