Anyway and Only. Two Important Words

Have you ever said or done something that you thought was an act of kindness and others totally misread your intention? This has happened to me a number of times and usually after a few head-scratching moments, I have to rethink my motivations, consider where the person is coming from, and wonder how, when I thought my motivations were altruistic I could be so misunderstood.

It still hurts when someone is suspicious (and hostile) and assumes my generosity is motivated by some hidden agenda for gain, but then I remember the word ONLY.

In King Benjamin's address in The Book of Mormon, he states, "For when ye are in the service of your fellow man, ye are only in the service of your God." I used to think this scripture meant that when we're serving others we're serving God, because God loves his children and wants us to serve and bless others...right?

But what if they resent, misunderstand, and hate you anyway?

Sister Teresa says, do it anyway. Which is good advice, because, if you consider the word ONLY in the King Benjamin's address, you'll see that we should serve not to necessarily to please others, but to ONLY serve God.

And it hurts if others misjudge us, but--oh well--the service isn't necessarily about them or even about you. It's about trying to be God's hands and fulfilling a need when you see one.

The Bible tells us Jesus "went about doing good." But was everyone happy about it? No. And of course, none of us can be as inspired as the Savior of the World, and of course we'll make mistakes, and sometimes we can be misguided, thoughtless, and bumbling, but as Sister Teresa said, we should only love anyway.