I felt a bit miffed as I got off the train. I felt like I had been duped and cheated. I thought about the kind of people who make pan-handling their profession, and I felt annoyed and a bit guilty that I'd had a hand in enabling that kind of lifestyle.
But as I got closer to home, I thought about what lessons I might learn from this experience, besides reluctance to give money to a pan-handler again, and it quickly dawned on me that I'm not much better.
I frequently turn to the Lord for blessings, and He regularly gives me more than I ask for or deserve, yet I always want more. More blessings, more patience, more mercy. I wonder if God ever gets tired of helping an unprofitable and insufficiently grateful servant like me. What worries me is that He probably does. He probably does get tired of continually helping people who just take advantage of Him, and I really can't blame Him for feeling that way.
So, I'm going to try to be more grateful and stay generous. I need a lot of blessings from God; it wouldn't be right of me to be stingy with my charity to others. Now, that doesn't mean that I'm going to hand out insane amounts of money to people on the streets. God frequently withholds such blessings from people, and with good reason. But I'll try to be less grumpy when I'm called upon to serve others, because God already gives me even more than I ask for, so I kind of owe it to Him to give what He asks of me, and maybe then some.
1 comment:
It sounds like you are thinking of these scriptures:
Mosiah 2:21
I say unto you that if ye should serve him who has created you from the beginning, and is preserving you from day to day, by lending you breath, that ye may live and move and do according to your own will, and even supporting you from one moment to another—I say, if ye should serve him with all your whole souls yet ye would be unprofitable servants. [emphasis added]
Mosiah 4:19-21
19 For behold, are we not all beggars? Do we not all depend upon the same Being, even God, for all the substance which we have, for both food and raiment, and for gold, and for silver, and for all the riches which we have of every kind?
20 And behold, even at this time, ye have been calling on his name, and begging for a remission of your sins. And has he suffered that ye have begged in vain? Nay; he has poured out his Spirit upon you, and has caused that your hearts should be filled with joy, and has caused that your mouths should be stopped that ye could not find utterance, so exceedingly great was your joy.
21 And now, if God, who has created you, on whom you are dependent for your lives and for all that ye have and are, doth grant unto you whatsoever ye ask that is right, in faith, believing that ye shall receive, O then, how ye ought to impart of the substance that ye have one to another. [emphasis added]
While it’s true that we are all “beggars”, and rely on God for all that we have, He doesn’t want us to feel bad about it. He wouldn’t be a very good god if he set up a situation where it would be impossible for us to be anything other than “unprofitable servants” and then got upset about it. I don’t believe it’s possible to “take advantage” of God. He knows all things and He chooses to give us blessings. I do think it makes Him sad when we are ungrateful and don’t share our blessings with others. Perhaps it’s partly because of what He wants, but I think it’s more that He cares about the person we could have helped, and He knows that our gratitude and service ultimately makes us happier, and helps us become a better person.
I have heard some advice that was something like:
Whether you give is between you and God,
What they do with it is between them and God.
It may have stemmed from this quote:
“…If you are honest and sincere, people may deceive you. Be honest and sincere anyway. …The good you do today, will often be forgotten. Do good anyway. Give the best you have, and it will never be enough. Give your best anyway. In the final analysis, it is between you and God. It was never between you and them anyway.” - Mother Teresa
http://www.goodreads.com/quotes/1139478-people-are-often-unreasonable-irrational-and-self-centered-forgive-them-anyway
“…Inasmuch as ye have done it unto one of the least of these my brethren, ye have done it unto me.” - Matthew 25:40
I don’t think Heavenly Father gets tired of helping us. Christ said, “For behold, this is my work and my glory—to bring to pass the immortality and eternal life of man.” (Moses 1:39) God is our loving parent and is patient and kind. He knows that we are still learning. He is happy anytime we do what is good and right. I think that He only wants us to feel guilty long enough to want to change, and to remember not to do it again. Check out this article by Tad R. Callister: How Do I Know When I Am Forgiven? https://www.lds.org/youth/article/how-do-i-know-when-i-am-forgiven?lang=eng It talks about guilt and forgiveness. He says, “If you feel the Spirit—when you pray, read the scriptures, teach, testify, or at any other time—then that is your witness that you have been forgiven or, alternatively, that the cleansing process is taking place, for the Spirit cannot dwell in an unholy tabernacle”. Assisting us is God’s goal in life. He wants us to be happy and look forward with faith, so we can return to live with Him again.
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