"'Give,' said the little stream, as it hurried down the hill … there is something all can give" (see “Children’s Songbook” p. 236).
In November, men and women give thanks for the bounteous harvest that helped preserve the Pilgrims when they came to a land of promise in search of religious freedom and peace. In December, hearts turn to the Christ child, in gratitude for his birth, and the promise of everlasting peace through the sacrifice, suffering and purity of his love.
It is this love that stirs deep within us at these times. Gratitude and wonder are part of this love. Our hearts expand to receive it, and a longing for more of this love overwhelms us so we feel a desire to give, to be like the Savior, to walk nobly and to bless others as he did.
It is easy for people to forget that they were sent to mortality not merely to stick it out, make it through and get what they can out of the struggle, but to be healers, to bear one another’s burdens, to listen, to lift. What things keep people from giving? Greed, surely, and self-interest that can grow until it overrides all else and all others; and, of course, fear. Fear gets in the way of any sort of giving because fear and faith cannot live in harmony together.
Former British Prime Minister Winston Churchill said, “We make a living by what we get. We make a life by what we give.”
Making a living, getting and keeping the things of the world, seeking the security of the world, these eat up a great deal of energy and claim attention they do not deserve. But what keeps people from giving, perhaps uppermost, is a lack of true self-awareness, self-knowledge and self-respect.
How do men and women see themselves as they walk through their lives, ordinary day after ordinary day?
Our “best self.” What is this? What does it mean? It is only when people truly see themselves as children of God — and believe themselves worthy of being so — that they can begin to treat others as though they are children of a Heavenly Father too. This is why mortals are commanded to love their neighbors as themselves. Then the confidence and beauty of real love begins to grow into a force within.
Anne Lindberg, an author and aviator and the wife of aviator Charles Lindberg, expressed this powerfully when she wrote in "Locked Rooms and Open Doors": “People talk about love as though it were something you could give, like an armful of flowers. …"
"Love is a force in you that enables you to give other things. It is the motivating power. It enables you to give strength and power and freedom and peace to another person. It is not a result; it is a cause. It is not a product; it produces. It is valueless unless you give something else by means of it.”
Doesn’t it make sense that we begin by giving these things to ourselves? In a speech at Brigham Young University, Elder Douglas L. Callister, an emeritus general authority Seventy of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, told how the composer Joseph Haydn “dressed in his best clothes because he said he was going before his Maker” (see "Your Refined Heavenly Home” on speeches.byu.edu).
It might be good to ask ourselves: Do I dress in my best, wear my best manners and display my best speech, especially on the Sabbath when I go to meetings, when I present myself to worship in the house of the Lord?
Brigham Young, the second president of the LDS Church, and other leaders have taught the same thing that Elder Callister expressed so beautifully: “The nearer we get to God, the more easily our spirits are touched by refined and beautiful things. If we could part the veil and observe our heavenly home, we would be impressed with the cultivated minds and hearts of those who so happily live there.”
But on this side of the veil, the challenge is for people to believe, and even to try to remember. Sloppy, lazy disregard renders a man or woman common and tends to destroy the wonder, grace, beauty and dignity of that which he or she really is inside, though that real self is sometimes obscured beneath the layers of mortality.
We can’t afford to be strangers to ourselves — that is the quickest way to get lost. How can we understand others, connect to others, if we aren’t connected to ourselves?
When people perceive themselves and conduct themselves as being strong, competent and beautiful, they feel that they have something to give. They can perceive others in the same way because they are becoming spiritually awake, spiritually prepared to give of self — which is the only true giving — in the pattern the Savior set.
Consider this story told by Brigham Young: “Take a man of the weakest intellect of any in a ward and ordain him a bishop, and then let every other man in that ward be filled with the power of his holy calling … their faith is concentrated upon him; they pray for him early and late, that the Lord will fill him with wisdom, open the visions of his mind. You all know that even such a man would become mighty in the house of Israel, if he had the faith of his ward” (see "Journal of Discourses, Vol. 7," as quoted in “The Best of Brigham Young,” Covenant Communications, compiled by Susan Evans McCloud).
Joseph Smith, the founder and first president of the LDS Church, was kind to his enemies, so much so that he was often able to calm their rancor and win them over because the goodness within him was what touched their hearts. He did not withhold what was truly himself, even from the wicked who desired his downfall and death. He gave forgiveness and did all he could to touch their hearts, that they might be brought out of darkness into light.
George Q. Cannon in “Life of Joseph Smith the Prophet” writes: “The grandeur of Joseph’s character is most shown in his lack of pretension. In his personal relations with his fellow apostles and elders, he gave them … as much deference as he asked, or was willing to accept for himself.”
All of us are children of light, are we not? That is how each of us came down. If people walk in light, everything that they touch will be lit and warmed by that contact. What a lovely and heartening thought! There are so many forms of darkness in the world today. That is a primary challenge to not wander off into one of the shadowed pathways and get mired, or in some way become lost.
We give that we may more fully live, that we may more fully experience the richness and joy of the pure love that our Father in Heaven gives to his mortal children.
As we give freely, we rejoice. As we give freely, we truly walk beside our Savior — who is the greatest of the gifts a loving Father has given his children.
Susan Evans McCloud is author of more than 40 books and has published screenplays, a book of poetry and lyrics, including two songs in the LDS hymnbook. She has six children. She blogs at susanevansmccloud.blogspot.com. Email: susasays@broadweave.net