"To Effectively Serve Others..."

In Elder Renlund's talk, Through God's Eyes, he says that "to effectively serve others we must see them through a parent’s eyes, through Heavenly Father’s eyes." Despite this being said in General Conference, I'm not sure how true this is. I've done service for people who I didn't particularly like or see as children of God. Is Elder Renlund saying that that service wasn't very effective? I'd almost be offended by that, if not for two things.

First, how do we measure how "effective" service is? What effects are we going for? If we're just trying to get the job done, I've certainly done that. However, if we're trying to touch their hearts through our service and bring them closer to God, I've almost certainly failed.

The second reason I'm not offended by Elder Renlund's claim is that I'm afraid I took it out of context the first time I heard it. What he actually said was that "in the church, to effectively serve others we must see them through a parent’s eyes, through Heavenly Father’s eyes." Church service is very different than other forms of service. In the church, we serve others by sharing the gospel with them and bearing our testimonies to them, among other ways. Service in the church isn't so much a physical activity, but a spiritual act. I have been giving physical service to others, but I don't know if I've been giving them spiritual service.

So, has my service been effective? I suppose it depends on what effects we're looking for. I know I've touched a few hearts through service in the church, but outside of that, I've mostly just been doing physical work. Whether or not that had any effect on the recipient's heart depends mostly on the recipient, though I may just be saying that because it's a cop-out. The truth is that I haven't been trying to spiritually serve all the people I serve physically. I wonder if I should start.