give a little bit

I’ve been hearing a lot about helping others & began reflecting on my life of late. When I was younger, I was all about the big showy acts of service. My senior year in high school I ran my school’s recycling program, had parties to collect money for UNICEF, cooked dinners for needy families, spent many Saturdays working at a horse farm that did physical therapy for disabled children, made Christmas packages for soldiers, coached a little kid soccer team, and volunteered at the hospital. When I look back on it, I wonder how I found the time for all these projects. But I did and I loved it. College was a little more time consuming. So instead of a bunch of mini-projects, for 2 years I got up at 7am every Friday to serve breakfast at the local food kitchen. It is one of my fondest memories from college.

I guess I’ve always gravitated towards event service – a big one-time spectacle with rather immediate gratification. My organizational skills serve me well there I suppose. As I’ve gotten older, however, I’ve begun to feel that what really matters is the smaller, more inconvenient actions that we take.

There was a talk in Stake Conference last weekend during which the speaker said, “The rescue often comes through our interaction with each other…we sometimes don’t realize that we can rescue someone.” This statement resonated with me in light of several recent experiences where I was both the giver and recipient of such aid. There is much hidden complexity in all of us, but we are often so caught up in the minutia of our own lives that we completely miss the more significant issues weighing down those around us.

I find myself particularly lacking in this area and highly unobservant in general. It is something I want to work on, but its hard to really tell how you’re doing when you don’t notice things to begin with.