"The noblest aim in life is to strive to live to make other lives better and happier."
"In the first two great commandments we are adjured to love God and to love our neighbors as ourselves. How very difficult these duties are when people become selfish. The more they become self-centered, the more their interest in God wanes; if some think of Him at all, it is only in an attitude of 'What has He done for me lately?'"
"Serving others is one of the best ways to nourish our testimonies..."
"[Giving service] is somewhat like flicking a light switch from "off" to "on"—lighting up a room so that we see more clearly (or for the first time) all the possibilities for service that we simply did not see in the darkness of devotion to self." (realize that there are infinite number of ways to do service - for each person you see, there is a way to serve them)
"Giving genuine companionship to the malnourished mortals who have known so little love and so few friends is as vital as food for the starving. So often what people need so much is to be sheltered from the storms of life in the sanctuary of belonging."
"We should balance our service between those who give us immediate response and gracious appreciation and those who are grumpy—so grumpy they almost dare us to love them."
"...selfish people are forever taking their own temperature, asking themselves, 'Am I happy?'"
"We lose ourselves in righteous service and in wise and good causes through a thousand deeds rather than one single spectacular act."
"Think for a moment how different it would be if people took on that physical appearance which would reflect distinctly how well they are doing spiritually. How would some of today's so-called beautiful people really look?"
"Let us, therefore, define service to others as including genuine listening—a listening that is more than just being patient until it is our turn to speak; rather, a listening that includes real response, not simply nodding absorption. Let us think of service not only as giving, but also as receiving righteously. Parenthetically, one of the many reasons some of today's children have not learned to give is that some parents do not know how to receive. Let our service, at times, include a willingness to hold back in conversation when what we would have said has already been said—and perhaps better. To contribute, not money, but time and space, so that another can expand is to reflect a quiet nobility. There are so many times when to forgo is to make way for another."
"We can serve by enduring well, for our steadiness will steady others who are otherwise on the verge of giving up."
"We can serve by giving deserved, specific praise."
"The righteous and serving will feel when others are 'past feeling.' They will love when the love of others has waxed cold. They will have also been different enough to have made a real difference in the world. They will know inner peace when fear envelops others. They will go on serving while others are lost in raging selfishness. Service softens, not hardens, our hearts. The gospel gentles us and tames us—it does not make us more wild. Service keeps indolence at bay. Pure love keeps us from all manner of lasciviousness. Service keeps us from forgetting the Lord our God, because being among and serving our brothers and sisters reminds us that Father is ever there and is pleased when we serve, for while the recipients of our service are our neighbors, they are His children."
"At several points the scriptures speak of bearing one another's burdens that they may be light. (Mosiah 18:8; Galatians 6:2.) Paul clearly connects this form of service with the keeping of the second commandment. (Galatians 5:13- 14.) The lessening of the load of another comes, in part, from our very expression of genuine concern transmitted to the burdened. Empathy expressed can do much to lift the heart of another. Objectively, in fact, the burden (the loss of health, a loved one) may remain, but the capacity to cope and to carry on is increased by our administering the adrenalin of affection."
"...carried within each soul born on this planet is the Light of Christ, which can illumine the landscape of life, even if the carrier does not understand that light within. (D&C 93:2.)"
"Jesus loved people enough to teach them specific things. He did not merely live among people as so many of us do, for co-existence is not real brotherhood. Teaching is a significant form of service, just as is witnessing to one's neighbor."
"Just as He has told us to do, He found and fulfilled Himself by losing himself in the service of others. But we must lose our life for His sake—not just any cause. There are those carefully masqueraded versions of service to others that are really ego exercises coated with a thin layer of public interest."
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