Charity

“Now ye may suppose that this is foolishness in me; but behold I say unto you, that by small and simple things are great things brought to pass; and small means in many instances doth confound the wise. And the Lord God doth work by means to bring about his great and eternal purposes; and by very small means the Lord doth confound the wise and bringeth about the salvation of many souls.”  -Alma 37:6-7

"Brothers and sisters, may I reemphasize that the most important attribute of Heavenly Father and His Beloved Son that we should desire and seek to possess within our lives is the gift of charity, "the pure love of Christ" (Moroni 7:47). From this gift springs our capacity to love and to serve others as the Savior did . . . Like the small flecks of  gold that accumulate over time into a large treasure, our small simple acts of kindness and service will accumulate into a life filled with love for Heavenly Father, devotion to the work of the Lord Jesus Christ, and a sense of peace and joy each time we reach out to one another."  -M. Russell Balard, Finding Joy through Loving Service, April 2011 General Conference

Being charitable does not have to be a big thing. In fact, it should not be a big thing. It should be many small, little things (though really no act of service is ever small). It's uplifting those who need uplifted. It's enlightening those who think they're of little worth. It's befriending someone who needs a friend. It's visiting someone who's alone. It's listening to someone who needs to talk. In short: it's loving people that need to be loved (just a hint: that's everyone). True charity is learning to love and treat people the way Christ would were He here. It will transform us so that we begin to not only act as the Savior would, but to think and feel the way He would too. It is essentially what helps us become like Him.

And I really do mean it when I say it's the small and simple things that count. It's not so much the act itself, but the fact that someone was thoughtful enough to act that makes service meaningful. We don't need to throw huge philanthropically themed events in order to do this. We can take five minutes to send someone an uplifting text message or to drop by and say a genuine 'Hi!' Five minutes of the day, people. Out of 1440. That's 0.35%. God has given us life and eternity. We can afford 0.35% of our days to help Him serve His children.

Let's all start being the super awesome people we are by getting up on our feet and going out to serve each other. Let's make Heavenly Father's day by choosing to be happier, kinder, friendlier, thoughtfuler, givinger, awesomer people. Service is awesome, and we are all awesome people, so let's put the two together by living with more charity today than we did yesterday. We can do it.