hAppY ? biRthdAy: goOd woRkS ♥

Clarissa, Sister Melanie Medaris [YW President], Brother Medaris

Happy 14th Birthday

Good Works

I was asked to speak on one of the Young Women Themes, and I have chosen Good Works. I chose this subject not only because it has been the season of giving but because it is one of the Themes I wanted to learn a little more about.

Good Works to me is defined as a passion of giving but never expecting anything in return but a feeling of joy in doing service for someone else. It can be as simple as sharing a hug or a smile to doing something for someone that they can not do for themselves.

Elder Uchtdorf said in the April Conference of this year during his talk “You Are My Hands” is that “As we extend our hands and hearts toward others in Christlike love, something wonderful happens to us. Our own spirits become healed, more refined, and stronger. We become happier, more peaceful, and more receptive to the Spirit.”

One of the things I have noticed that relates this message and to Good Works is my younger brother every Monday morning he wakes up early enough without complaint to go to some of our neighbors and help them take out their garbage cans. To see the joy that it brings him to serve others is so fun to see! He really is happier!

As I was reading through my Young Women pamphlet in the Good Works section on the very front of the section it had a scripture and quote. 3 Nephi 12:16: There for let your light so shine before this people, that they may see your good works and glorify your Father who is in Heaven. The quote is “I will help others and build the kingdom through righteous service”.

One of the many of my favorite scriptures is Mosiah 2:17, which says “When ye are in the service of your fellow beings ye are only in the service of your God.” I really like that scripture because it is so straight forward in saying that when you are doing service for others your really doing service for your Father in Heaven, I believe this is true because you are helping one of His own children. I have learned that often others give service you may not even notice; such as preparing meals, or helping a brother or sister, or picking up a few things in around the house, even comforting others and helping them bear their burdens. These really simple tasks seem little but they are big to the person that you are helping. I know that there are many things we can do and if we truly take the time we will all be able to see the Good Works being performed…

President James E. Faust, Second Counselor in the First Presidency: “God knows you and what you can become because He has known you from the beginning when you were His spirit sons and daughters. What you become will depend in large measure upon how you follow righteous principles and do good works”. Which goes on to say how very important Good Works is. It is true that we will be known because of our works, which are our actions.

Good Works is an essential principle of family living. In fact one element of Good Works that is essential to eternal families is doing Temple work.

I had an experience in doing some Temple Work for my own Great Grandfathers sisters. It started with a young men’s and young women’s activity when we went to look for family names to do baptisms for youth conference, I was discouraged that I could not find a name. My brother found a little piece of information which led my uncle to finding some leading information to these two family names that my uncle found. I was so honored to have him think of me to do their names. A couple months later my Mom and I went to the Salt Lake Temple and I did the names while she stood on the side and watched. I felt the spirit so strongly when I was done I knew I had done Good Works, because it was something that these sisters could not have done for themselves.

Another scripture I found that went along with Good Works is,

Alma 37:34: “Teach [the people] to never be weary of good works, but to be meek and lowly in heart; for such shall find rest to their souls.” This means to me that we should never think that doing service is too hard because in the end or even while you are doing that act of service if you really have the true intent of doing that service the Lord will bless you to have the strength and courage to be able to complete it.

A story that I really enjoyed reading this season was “Christmas Day in the Morning” by Pearl S. Buck.

It is about a Young teenage boy who lived on a farm. Every morning he would wake up at four a.m. with his father to milk the cows. Even on Christmas day the cows needed to be milked.

The young boy realized as he got older that his father went out to milk the cows all on his own Christmas morning without him. The Father loved his son and of course realized that his young son should be in the warm house opening gifts and sharing the excitement of Christmas with the rest of his family.

The young boy soon came to realize that his Father sacrificed by doing the work alone on Christmas Day. The boy couldn’t help but feel a little discourage and even guilty that his Father missed out on Christmas morning excitement, so this particular year he was going to change that.

The boy set his alarm clock for 2 a.m. which would give him plenty of time to milk all of the cows by himself and get back into bed.

The next morning *Christmas Day* he woke up to the sound of his alarm put on his shoes and ran outside. After he had finished with the cows he came inside and crawled back into bed and silently waited to his fathers usual wakeup call.

As his father peeked into his room he felt bad waking up his son so early on Christmas so he left silently without saying a word and went outside alone. Soon returning to his son’s bedroom with complete joy on his face he told him that someone had already milked the cows.

The boy told him that it was him and he father replied saying that it was the most wonderful good work anyone had ever done for him and that he would never forget it as long as he lived.

After his father died and 30 years passed the boy, now a grown man, still awakens every morning at 4 AM and milks the cows, never forgetting, always remembering, the smile on his dads face that early Christmas morning.

This story really expresses the joy that both the giver and the receiver of the service can experience. As we recognize the Good Works others do for us and as we do Good Works for others we are living the scriptures.

Jesus is our greatest example of Good Works. Everything that we learn about Him shows us how to do Good Works. We should always try to follow his example and bring joy to others and to ourselves by serving, comforting, and seeking to find Good Works in all our lives.