Recently I was helping someone who needed assistance. I was not doing anything particularly grand, just a helping hand into bed and settling everything around the person to ensure comfort and accessibility. I was shocked and frankly a little overwhelmed when the individual grabbed my hand and covered it with kisses, thanking me profusely and humbly for my help.
At that moment, I felt very self-conscious and unsure how to react, murmuring that I was glad to help and that I didn't do anything that spectacular. As is often the case, the Lord turned that situation into a teaching moment for me.
As I left the side of the individual, into my mind the Lord placed the image of Mary anointing the feet of Jesus, kissing his feet, wiping his feet with her hair. Tears sprang to my eyes in that moment, and even now as I think about it, I feel teary-eyed. Now before I get struck by lightning on the spot, I want to say I am NOT comparing myself to Jesus, because that would after all be the saddest and sorriest of comparisons. Rather, I am looking at the gratitude being expressed in these two situations, and comparing it to my own level of gratitude.
How grateful am I when others do things for me? How do I express that gratitude? While my heart may be full of thankfulness, how am I expressing that to others? And most especially, and perhaps the Lord's point in all of this, how grateful I should be to the Lord! How much time do I spend pondering the blessing of the atonement and expressing my gratitude for what the Lord has done for me?
I've made it a personal commitment to think more often about the magnitude of what the Lord has done, to express more deeply my gratitude in prayer and in action for all that it means to me. In general, I want to be more thankful and aware of the kindnesses that others have done for me in my life. I have been so very blessed to have the spirit as my teacher.
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