Givers and Receivers

          What is the greatest gift you can give to another?  Is it your time?  Your concern?  Sacrificing something that means a lot to you?  Certainly which gift is best depends on the situation.  There is one gift that the Savior often gave that may not be obvious.

          "Remember the words of the Lord Jesus, how he said, It is more blessed to give than to receive" (Acts 20:35).  Because so much happiness comes from being able to make a positive contribution for others, sometimes the best thing we can do for them is to be helped by them.

          When we help others there is often a tendency to think of ourselves as above them, at least in some sense, even if we love and respect them.  It takes humility, and true love, to let others serve us so that they can feel happy and elevated.  To be clear, that does not mean that we should be selfish.  It simply means that when others try to do nice things for us, and we let them, we are giving them a key to happiness.

          Why is it so intuitive to us that we should accept Christ's sacrifice for us, and yet so difficult for us to allow others to do the dishes for us, give us rides to the grocery store, or any other small thing?  Zion is to be of one heart and one mind.  I do not believe that that can occur without a constant flow of giving and receiving between all of the saints.  I am not saying that we should limit the amount that we help others.  What I am saying is that we should pair out willingness to serve others with a willingness to be served.  From experience I know that sometimes the latter is harder,

          The following comes from the life of the Savior:

          "And, behold, a woman in the city, which was a sinner, when she knew that Jesus sat at meat in the Pharisee’s house, brought an alabaster box of ointment, And stood at his feet behind him weeping, and began to wash his feet with tears, and did wipe them with the hairs of her head, and kissed his feet, and anointed them with the ointment" (Luke 7:37-38).

          I think that most people in Christ's situation would feel a little embarrassed about amount of affection the woman was showing.  But instead of pushing her away, the Savior gave her the priceless gift of the opportunity to serve the Son of God.  Sometimes the best way to rescue the damsel in distress is to let her rescue you.  The word "let" doesn't mean that you didn't legitimately need rescuing.  It may be as simple as acknowledging something beneficial that she did for you that she might not have thought was important.  It may be that you could have turned to someone else but chose her instead.

          Balance is difficult, but when the most important principles are in our hearts they emerge naturally in our actions.  So serve others.  Love them, help them and sacrifice for them.  But among all that, let others love you back.

"Coupelle opalescente Etling - Etling opalescent dish," no changes made, by Etienne https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/2.0/legalcode

Immense Distance

There is no way the Church can honestly describe where we must yet go and

what we must yet do without creating a sense of immense distance.

     --Elder Neal A Maxwell

          Have you ever felt overwhelmed by the distance you see between yourself and God?  At one time or another in our mortal journey, all of us will need to give, as well as receive, assistance from others.  We were never meant to make it back to the Father alone.  In fact, I believe it is impossible.  President Joseph Fielding Smith said, "Therefore our salvation and progression depends upon the salvation of our worthy dead with whom we must be joined in family ties."  In the Doctrine & Covenants we read "that they without us cannot be made perfect—neither can we without our dead be made perfect."

          President Joseph Fielding Smith also said, "There must be a welding, a joining together of the generations from the days of Adam to the end of time."  In other words, although individuals must personally qualify for eternal life, the quest to be saved is more than even an endeavor of an immediate family.  Rather, it is the work of the whole family of Adam.  In my opinion, to be saved means that God accepts the human family, not just individually, but also as a whole.  After all, He once said, "And if ye are not one, ye are not mine."

          Keep in mind that there is an important distinction between eternal life and exaltation as well as between the many degrees of salvation that exist.  Notwithstanding these differences, and no matter what level of progression the above quotes and scriptures refer to, it is obvious that the Lord wants us to return to him as a unit.  Do we see it that way?  Or do we believe that salvation is an "every man for himself" proposition?

          We are literally brothers and sisters.  Somehow we manage to convince ourselves that because that is true only in a spiritual sense that it doesn't really count.  And yet in the same breath we declare that our Father in Heaven is just as literally our parent as the person who gave birth to us.  The more I see those around me as siblings, the more I see ourselves as a team, a family, all fighting towards the same goal.  We are in part responsible for their spiritual welfare, just as they are in part responsible for ours.  We were meant to lean on others when we need support, even as we support them in turn.  So what if some of us struggle more than others?  Are our literal siblings less valuable because they have physical or mental limitations, even if they were caused in part by their own lack of effort?

          There is a word for a piece of humanity who accepts their spiritual familial identity.  For a people who work and love together, with each member valuing his brother's salvation as much as his own.  It is a word that describes something that the Lord requires us to build before the coming of Christ.  Something miraculous, world-changing, and utterly achievable.  That word is ZION.