President George Albert Smith (1870–1951) said of ministering to others: “Our eternal happiness will be in proportion to the way that we devote ourselves to helping others.” The Divine Mission of Jesus Christ: Minister https://www.churchofjesuschrist.org/study/ensign/2014/06/the-divine-mission-of-jesus-christ-minister?id=p7&lang=eng#p7
I have been studying from a work book called Learn of Me by Stephanie Dibb Sorensen. She put together scriptures talks and articles about the life and attributes of the Savior based off Topical Guide references on Jesus Christ. I started this study in Septmeber, 2021.
In January 2017, President Russell M. Nelson of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints gave this advice: “Commence tonight to consecrate a portion of your time each week to studying everything Jesus said and did.” He suggested using the Topical Guide to do this. President Nelson in General Conference April 2017 related that he had done this challenge and he had become, “a different man,” as a result of his intensive study.
At first, I only did the study on Sundays but more recently I have tried to do it every day even if just for a few minutes. I am currently studying the attributes of Jesus Christ from a series in 2014 printed for Relief Society Visiting Teaching lessons.
This particular attribute of ministering is one that I have struggled to do consistently in my life. I tell myself that I am here to serve others but far to often my daily actions are selfish and focused on my needs.
Even at work where it is my job to minister to the needs of the sick, I have to make a conscious effort to focus on the needs of the patient and their families versus my need to get ‘my work’ done.
I really love the verse quoted above by President Smith and know that my life has been most rewarding when I am immersed in the ministering to others such as during my mission working in a refugee camp in Thailand, during the time my children were young and sporadically since then when doing intensive service for my Church callings. The other times I truly feel like I am ministering are the nights my family and I make and serve dinner to homeless youth in Salt Lake City.
The effort to serve and the feeling of being of service are worth the ‘sacrifce’ of self, time and resources. I will keep working on developing this attribute in my life every day.