Sabbath 10/12/08

"....become as little children, (or) ye shall not enter into the kingdom of heaven....."

Matthew 18:3

I have been thinking a lot lately about how we treat others, even ourselves. I have been trying in my own life to be kinder- to do what I can do to help others. So often I expect others to "pay it forward" or "return the favor" and I realize over and over again that they don't and they won't. Truth is, we often only reach out to others in a time, place, and way that is comfortable to us. That is not "true Christian behavior" in my opinion. If you think of the Savior, He always-no matter what-reached out to others whether it was convenient or not. And you know what- no one "paid it forward" and no one "returned the favor". If we are truly going to better our lives and ourselves, we need to follow the Savior and not put conditions on ourselves when we serve others or conditions on others when they serve us. It is a lot like how a small child would respond to a situation. They are just happy that someone made them food, played with them, gave them a gift, changed their diaper, etc. etc. There are no conditions- no expected returns. A child will give you a hug anytime of day in any place- nothing expected in return. Basically what I'm trying to say....is that all of us....need to be more like little children in all we do. If we did this how much kinder would we all be in all we do everyday.