What Have I Done for Someone Today?

I like so many have been blessed with amazing family and friends! They put up with all my big projects and come running to my aide each time I bite off more than I can chew. I wonder many times why they even want to be my friends at all, it’s so much work! They live the Gospel of Jesus Christ each and every day as they serve others. My life has been greatly blessed because of their goodness, sacrifice of time, talent, and resources. When I think of these good people I’m reminded of the ultimate example of love, charity, and compassion - President Thomas S. Monson. 

It is so easy to get caught up in the busyness of life. As I look back on all the service we received during our daughter’s wedding, it is a humble reminder for me to take a look at my own life. Am I immersed in the “thick of thin things”? Do I spend too much time on things that don’t really matter in the eternal scheme of things, or am I focusing on more important causes and seeking opportunities each day to give back and “pay it forward”.

We are surrounded by those in need of our love, attention, encouragement, support, comfort, and kindness. These beloved children of God are family members, friends, acquaintances, and strangers. We are the Lord’s hands here on earth, with the calling to serve and lift others.

Helping Hands at my Daughter's Wedding

It took many hands to pull off the fairy tale wedding. Countless men and women jumped in and helped so much, making fabric roses, hemming endless yards of tablecloths, cutting and tying yards and yards of ribbon, hanging hundreds of European crystals from very high branches, taking the entire burden of the food off my shoulders, running more errands than I can count, doing yard work in the pouring rain, offering the use, set up, and services of the perfect sound system, setting up tables and chairs, spending a sleepless night with our daughter to help calm her nerves, cleaning up after it was all over as I was in a comatose state of exhaustion, taking me home and putting me to bed, delivering the wedding dress to be cleaned and preserved, dropping the flowers off to be freeze dried, delivering left over food and flowers to neighbors in need, I could literally go on for pages with the service rendered in our behalf. . .

The photo here isn’t complete, but the best we could get as so many others were scurrying about to relieve my stress and make it the perfect evening. I will never be able to re-pay them for their selfless service in my behalf, but I can pay it forward by returning the favor and seeking for opportunities to serve at least one person each day. One of my favorite scriptures in the Book of Mormon comes from King Benjamin, “When ye are in the service of your fellow beings yea are only in the service of your God.”

At the end of each day, may we ask ourselves this question, “What have I done for someone today?”

Until next time,

Les