A Selfish Reason to Share

In his Sunday Morning session talk, Be an Example and a Light, President Thomas S. Monson shared a poem, "Lamps" by Lon Woodrum:

I met a stranger in the night

Whose lamp had ceased to shine.

I paused and let him light

His lamp from mine.

A tempest sprang up later on

And shook the world about.

And when the wind was gone

My lamp was out!

But back to me the stranger came—

His lamp was glowing fine!

He held the precious flame

And lighted mine!

In life, we never know who, among those we help, may return to help us or go on to help another. Yet, by sharing his light, the speaker of the poem not only spread light to another, but effectively preserved his own. Had he selfishly retained his flame, he would have lost it and not got it back. However, because he was willing to stop and share his light, it was restored to him after it had gone out.

Similarly, we have many opportunities to share light with others by treating them kindly and generally being a blessing in their lives. Though, theoretically, we're supposed to do this merely out of the goodness of our hearts, there are certain benefits we can get from it. First, we'll feel the warm glow of God's approval, and our light will grow brighter. That always feels good. Second, the person whom we help may return and help us. And even if they don't, the may go on to help another person, who may go on to help someone else, and so on. Eventually, this chain reaction of kindness will make its way back to you, or at least make the world in general a nicer place for everyone, including yourself.

There will be times when you struggle, times when you need the help of another, and when that happens, you'll be more likely to get help from others if you had helped others first. Of course, looking forward to getting help later isn't the best motivation for sharing your light, and if it's your only motivation, you may not have a whole lot of light to share, but I am certain that if you share goodness and kindness with anyone, for any reason, you're more likely to get help later, when you really need it.