One such project was at a local inner-city youth center for homeless and troubled teenagers. Those who participated cleaned and organized the facility and sorted through donations. By the end there were boxes of hats and toothbrushes along with notebooks and hackie sacks, all brand new and all given in the hopes of making a life a little better.
While reading through the scriptures for this topic, the one that stuck out to me the most was Mosiah 4:26 which reads:
26 And now, for the sake of these things which I have spoken unto you—that is, for the sake of retaining a remission of your sins from day to day, that ye may walk guiltless before God—I would that ye should impart of your substance to the poor, every man according to that which he hath, such as feeding the hungry, clothing the naked, visiting the sick and administering to their relief, both spiritually and temporally, according to their wants.
One of the most prevalent and remarkable characteristics of Christ is his ability to think of others almost constantly. Even after he found out his cousin John the Baptist was killed and wanted to be alone for a little bit, he turned his attention to those following after him seeking his teachings. Even more amazing than that, during his crucifixion in the mists of pain and his near death, he thinks of the welfare of the souls of those torturing him.
When it comes to developing self-disclipline to do good like the Savior did, I think of two examples. The first was when I was a teenager at my family's cabin. My Uncle had brought up the teenage boys from his congregation for a trip at the same time I was going to be up there with my dad, which did not bother me in the slights. I mean, 10 cute boys? What girl would say no? During the second day there were some boys up in the loft area above the main living space where I was with another adult leader. While reading a book, the boy's conversation floated down to me with them unawares, and I heard some foul language coming from them. I guess my face looked pretty shocked that supposed good Mormon boys were speaking like that, because the other leader felt the need to look at me and say "This isn't girls camp" and went back to reading his book.
The second example is from the summer of my senior year. My Bishop (the man who leads our congregation) was playing basket ball with some other men from the congregation when his achilles tendon snapped. I have tried to imagine the pain that must have caused to have such an important tendon snap clear off, and it makes my skin crawl and I have to stop. A comment from one of the men who was there has stuck out in my mind. He said, "If it was me, I would have sworn up a storm. No one would have blamed him at all if he had sworn. It still amazes me and I can't conceive of how he didn't."
In the first example there was bad behavior and an excuse was made. In the second excuses were ready to be handed out but they were not needed. I feel like that is how it is with anything in our lives, but in this case with giving to the poor. There is a ready excuse for everyone, "we have so little", "our kid's getting ready for college soon", "we gave last month" when in reality we should be living our lives so the excuses people are waiting to give to us are unneeded. That's the way Christ was, and that's the way we should be as well.
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