5Oct10

As I sit here contemplating what sort of small tidbit of information I might have to share from my 27 years experience, I only can think of one thing that has really stood out to me in the past couple of weeks. 

In sacrament meeting a couple weeks ago a sister in my ward told a story of a lady that was in the same ward as President Kimball when one day she got a wild idea to make a tie to match a suit that she had seen him wearing.  So, she got busy, made the tie and took it over to the prophet's home.  When she arrived she suddenly felt very silly and even ashamed when sister Kimball opened the door, called her by name and called her back to the door.  The sister explained she had made this tie for Pres. Kimball and had intended to give it to him but felt that it was a silly thing of her to do and was going to just take it back home and give it to somebody else.  To this sister Kimball chided her and explained that she must never suppress a generous thought because generosity comes from the spirit and is a tool for God to bless the lives of others.

This story really hit me.  I don't know how many times I have passed up opportunities or suppressed feelings to be generous, even in small things.  Most the time I end up feeling very guilty and ashamed of myself.  In contrast, those times that I take 5 minutes to help someone out, or stop to help the lady with a flat tire in a bitter cold snow storm (yes I did this, and I was wearing my nice slacks at the time too) I always feel so energized and uplifted.  My day goes better.  I'm less prone to be annoyed.  But the very best part is to see how grateful they are to see that there is somebody in this cold, harsh, selfish world that will take a minute to help them push their dead car out of traffic, give them directions or just pick up a pencil that rolled off their table.

This world is far too small for us to go about trying to think of only ourselves.  God created us to be social creatures and to help those around us.  Let's all do our part to help others in even the simplest ways (or big ways if the occasion requires and we have the means) and let's be willing to accept help.