Charity Sometimes Faileth

A few years ago, not long after we moved into our current neighborhood, one of the women in our ward was diagnosed with cancer.  It was her second bout with this dreadful disease, and this time it was a tumor in her brain.  She went downhill very quickly, needing a surgery that ended up taking her hearing in one ear and severing the nerves on one side of her face.  Cancer is devastating, no matter who it attacks, but it was particularly tough in my friend's case.  She is the mother of seven children, the youngest of whom was five years old at the time of this latest diagnosis.  She was the perfect picture of a stay-at-home mom.  She gave her family only the healthiest of foods.  Everything she made was completely from scratch, and she was proud to say that they never ate store-bought bread.

It may sound strange to those who do not know her, but when I spoke to her at the beginning stages of her illness, this was one of her greatest concerns - "What are my kids going to eat?"  Well, this happened to be one area in which I could be of service.  I could not take her disease away.  I could not even make her physically feel better.  But I could bake wheat bread.  That very Sunday, I brought over four loaves of hot, whole-wheat bread.  She called me the next day, and with much gratitude in her voice, she told me that my bread was the closest to tasting like her own that she had ever had.  And so it began.  For the next year, I brought their family an average of four loaves of bread a week.  Sometimes it was more, depending on my schedule, and sometimes it was less.  No matter how many though, they were always appreciative.

I do not tell this story to brag about my service.  Quite the opposite, in fact.  You see, my friend is still very sick, more than three years after all of this started.  And for about a year and a half, I have literally done nothing for her.  I stopped making bread.  I stopped taking turns with the other women in the neighborhood driving her to chemotherapy appointments.  I have even stopped dropping by to check on her or just to chat.  Because I feel guilty about my lack of service, I even began avoiding her in the halls.  It was subconscious at first, but in the last few weeks, I have been kind of overwhelmed by guilt.  If she talks to me, I don't ignore her.  I am pleasant and friendly, but I keep the conversation short, hoping that it won't reach a point where I feel it necessary to apologize for my behavior.

©Darrell Wyatt

It's not just my friend that I stopped serving.  I have stopped doing just about anything for anybody.  I don't even volunteer at the school unless I get roped into it by a friend.  I'm not sure what happened to cause me to go from one extreme to another.  Perhaps I grew tired.  Maybe it was my depressed state.  Whatever it was, it was wrong, and I need to get back on the charity wagon.  But how?

But charity is the pure love of Christ...Wherefore, my beloved brethren, pray unto the Father with all the energy of heart, that ye may be filled with this love....(Moroni 7:47,48)

Pray!  How is it that I can forget something so simple and so very important?  Of course Heavenly Father will help me be more charitable if I but ask him.  Of course!  And I do want to serve others, and I do know how to.  What I need Heavenly Father's help with is the motivation to get started and to keep going.  I know that if I ask Him, He will give me the boost that I need.  I will be charitable again, and I will be able to receive all the blessings that I've been promised will come with that service...namely that I "shall be like him" and that I "may be purified even as he is pure" (Moroni 7:48).  Talk about motivation!

Click here to read what I read today: Moroni 7