Opportunities to Do Good

Opportunities to Do Good

HENRY B. EYRING

First Counselor in the First Presidency

"Our Heavenly Father hears the prayers of His children across the earth pleading for food to eat, for clothes to cover their bodies, and for the dignity that would come from being able to provide for themselves. Those pleas have reached Him since He placed men and women on the earth.

You learn of those needs where you live and from across the world. Your heart is often stirred with feelings of sympathy. When you meet someone struggling to find employment, you feel that desire to help. You feel it when you go into the home of a widow and see that she has no food. You feel it when you see photographs of crying children sitting in the ruins of their home 

destroyed by an earthquake or by fire.

Because the Lord hears their cries and feels your deep compassion for them, He has from the beginning of time provided ways for His disciples to help. He has invited His children to consecrate their time, their means, and themselves to join with Him in serving others."

We have the power to serve.

to lift the burdens of our fellow man,

to show our love through service.

More from Henry B. Eyring:

"I know that God the Father lives and hears our prayers. I know that Jesus is the Christ. You and those you serve can be purified and strengthened by serving Him and keeping His commandments. You can know as I know, by the power of the Holy Ghost, that Joseph Smith was God’s prophet to restore the true and living Church, which this is. I testify that President Thomas S. Monson is the living prophet of God. He is a great example of what the Lord did: going about doing good. I pray that we may seize our opportunities to “lift up the hands [that] hang down, and strengthen the feeble knees.”⁶ In the sacred name of Jesus Christ, amen."

Mosiah 2:17

And behold, I tell you these things that ye may learn wisdom; that ye may learn that when ye are in the service of your fellow beings ye are only in the service of your God.

I have found the paradox .............

that if I love until it hurts, 

then there is no hurt, 

but only more love.  

~Mother Teresa

How wonderful it is that 

nobody need wait a single moment 

before starting to improve the world.  

~Anne Frank

We can do no great things, 

only small things with great love.  

~Mother Teresa

If you can't feed a hundred people, 

then feed just one.  

~Mother Teresa

I've seen and met angels wearing the disguise 

of ordinary people living 

ordinary lives.  

~Tracy Chapman

Let no one ever come to you without 

leaving better and happier.  

~Mother Teresa

"Heavenly Father’s love for His children is the core message of the plan of happiness, which plan is made active through the Atonement of Jesus Christ—

the greatest expression of love the world has ever known. ¹⁶

How clearly the Savior spoke when He said that every other commandment hangs upon the principle of love. ¹⁷ If we do not neglect the great laws—if we truly learn to love our Heavenly Father and our fellowman with all our heart, soul, and mind—all else will fall into place.

The divine love of God turns ordinary acts into extraordinary service. "

DIETER F. UCHTDORF, 10-2009 

October Conference Report