Live to Serve

This morning, I listened to Elder Ronald A Rasband's talk, The Joyful Burden of Discipleship, in which he spoke about a tornado which tore through part of Oklahoma and gave many people opportunities to serve one another. His talk was mostly about how we should be ready to serve each other, but as I heard his message for the first time, I came away with a different message.

Elder Rasband spoke of a young woman named Tori who had miraculously survived the tornado, and later had been given a blessing by Elder Rasband, who said in his talk, "I counseled Tori to remember the day when a servant of the Lord laid his hands on her head and pronounced that she had been protected by angels in the storm."

I wrote down in my notes that Tori had been saved from the tornado because God loves her and He has a work for her to do. It occurred to me then that God also loves me and that He has a work for me to do, and since I don't know exactly what that work is, I'm probably not doing it, and I need to do something about that.

Since then, I've thought about my purpose in life, mostly wondering what it is. My Patriarchal Blessing doesn't spell out what my purpose is, but it does mention that I'll have many opportunities to serve, and to be honest, that sounds like about as good of a purpose in life as I could ask for. One thing that I enjoy doing and feel capable of doing is serving and helping others. I don't think I have any special talent in any given area, but I feel good inside whenever I lend a helping hand.

Helping others sounds too vague to be anyone's purpose in life, but it seems like a good place to start, and whether this is a coincidence or not, it matches up pretty nicely with the rest of Elder Rasband's talk, in which he quoted President Thomas S. Monson as having said:

We are surrounded by those in need of our attention, our encouragement, our support, our comfort, our kindness—be they family members, friends, acquaintances, or strangers. We are the Lord’s hands here upon the earth, with the mandate to serve and to lift His children.

I don't know if that's the reason I was born, but it sounds like a good thing to do regardless, so I'm going to try to take those words to heart and try to serve others more frequently and more diligently. It may or may not be my purpose in life, but I'm reasonably certain that if multiple prophets and apostles ask us to serve each other, it's probably a good idea.