Becoming Grateful Day 16: Serve Someone

Remember the scripture in Day 3?  King Benjamin spoke this to his people as he taught them about service and our dependency on God.  Earlier in his sermon he said this,

"And behold, I tell you 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...And behold as, if I, whom ye call your king, who has spent his days in your service, and yet has been in the service of God, do merit any thanks from you, O how you ought to thank your heavenly King!

To many it goes without saying, but I'm saying it anyway: Service and gratitude go hand in hand.  When we serve others we show our thanks to our Heavenly Father.  Serving others and gratitude are both Christlike attributes.  As we incorporate them in our hearts and minds, we become like Christ.  It is through Christ that we become our very best selves too.

We can be good and do awesome things in life.  We can serve others and help someone along their way, but if we let Jesus Christ and Heavenly Father help us do that, then we are able to do so much more than we can do on our own.

God does not expect us to do more than we are able, or run faster than we have strength, so sometimes we may think our ability to serve others is limited, but I know that when I make time to serve others, I am able to do more than I think I could have done on my own.  I think that's because to serve others is so very important to our Heavenly Father and His Son Jesus Christ.  All that They do is to serve us and make us happy and They are eager and able to help us to serve others.

I love the LDS Conference a talk by Pres. Spencer W. Kimball about Service To Others.  I think of this when I think about serving others and the gratitude I gain from serving others.

"The Lord does notice and He watches over us.  But it usually through another person that he meets our needs."

One of my favorite thoughts of all times come from this talk.

In serving others, we “find” ourselves in terms of acknowledging divine guidance in our lives. Furthermore, the more we serve our fellowmen in appropriate ways, the more substance there is to our souls. We become more significant individuals as we serve others. We become more substantive as we serve others—indeed, it is easier to “find” ourselves because there is so much more of us to find!

Go out today and serve someone with love!


-Sarah