Delight in Service and Good Works

Read the following with the sisters you visit, and discuss the questions, the scriptures, and the teachings from our Church leaders. Share your experiences and testimony, and invite those you teach to do the same.

Mosiah 2:17: “When ye are in the service of your fellow beings ye are only in the service of your God.”

Alma 37:34: “Teach [the people] to never be weary of good works, but to be meek and lowly in heart; for such shall find rest to their souls.”

D&C 58:27–28: “Verily I say, men should be anxiously engaged in a good cause, and do many things of their own free will, and bring to pass much righteousness; for the power is in them, wherein they are agents unto themselves. And inasmuch as men do good they shall in nowise lose their reward.”

Elder Robert J. Whetten of the Seventy: “Jesus’ … love for us motivated His atoning sacrifice for our sins. Without His love, we would be unable to return to our Heavenly Father. How He lived His life is the example we should follow. His way should be our way. ‘Therefore, what manner of men ought ye to be? Verily I say unto you, even as I am’ [3 Ne. 27:27]. He showed us that we must go about doing good, that the spiritual and physical welfare of our fellowmen is as important as our own, and that we should show genuine concern and compassion for all of our Heavenly Father’s children. Moroni defines Christlike love as charity. … It’s not enough to say we believe and that we love Him; we must be found possessed with His kind of love for others at that last day. It is not necessary for us to lay down our life for others as He did, but like the Savior, we should bless the lives of others by giving of what our life is made up of—our time, our talents, our means, and ourselves” (“True Followers,” Liahona, July 1999, 34).

Elder Dallin H. Oaks of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles: “We are challenged to move through a process of conversion toward that status and condition called eternal life. This is achieved not just by doing what is right, but by doing it for the right reason—for the pure love of Christ. The Apostle Paul illustrated this in his famous teaching about the importance of charity (see 1 Cor. 13). The reason charity never fails and the reason charity is greater than even the most significant acts of goodness he cited is that charity, ‘the pure love of Christ’ (Moro. 7:47), is not an act but a condition or state of being. Charity is attained through a succession of acts that result in a conversion. Charity is something one becomes. Thus, as Moroni declared, ‘except men shall have charity they cannot inherit’ the place prepared for them in the mansions of the Father (Ether 12:34; emphasis added)” (“The Challenge to Become,” Liahona, January 2001, 42).

President James E. Faust, Second Counselor in the First Presidency: “God knows you and what you can become because He has known you from the beginning when you were His spirit sons and daughters. What you become will depend in large measure upon how you follow righteous principles and do good works” (“Who Do You Think You Are?” Liahona, June 2001, 4).

How is rendering service related to the Atonement of Jesus Christ?
How does service affect the receiver? How does it affect the giver?
How can we find more “delight” in service?

Illustration by Dilleen Marsh