He fed them, healed them, comforted them, and forgave them. A man is walking along the shoreline of an ocean when he comes up on a little boy standing in the midst of thousands of starfish that had washed up along the shore.
The man watches the little boy as he picks up a starfish and one by one throws them back in the sea. This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed. How can we demonstrate the compassion of God to those around us? Like this: Like Loading Notify of. Inline Feedbacks. Would love your thoughts, please comment. Sorry, your blog cannot share posts by email. When the prodigal son came home, his faithful brother was jealous of the attention extended to his repentant brother.
The father had to reassure the faithful son of his love. Now the returning prodigal son had a chance to practice the same forgiving and accepting attitude toward his jealous brother that he was experiencing from his father. If we want the Lord and others to forgive our faults, we must be forgiving of others. As members of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, how can we develop a caring environment in our homes and meetinghouses that will give comfort to those who want to come back, knowing they will be welcomed and loved upon their return?
A good example of compassion and service making a difference is the example of Don and Marian Summers, which represents the experiences of many other missionary couples. While serving in England, they were asked to serve the last six months of their mission in the Swindon Branch to teach and assist in activating members.
For eighty years Swindon had been a branch with a faithful few and with many good members becoming less active. The congregation numbered seventeen, including President and Sister Hales and four missionaries. Still wearing our winter coats, we all huddled around a small, inadequate heater while we listened to a Sunday School lesson.
With example and the encouragement of a branch president, there was a change of heart, and faith and activity started to increase. When the leaders started caring, the members began to respond, and a whole new spirit pervaded the branch.
The members became excited again about the gospel and helping one another. We made a promise to the Lord that we would not let one new or reactivated member fall into inactivity while we were in Swindon.
They became offended at suggestions for changes. The couple twice wrote to the bishop [since by then it was a ward] and asked to have their names removed from the Church records. In the last letter they forbade any of the members to visit them, so Marian and I went to the florist and purchased a beautiful plant of chrysanthemums and had it delivered to the young couple.
Please come back. There were members in attendance compared to seventeen six months before. The young couple was there and, in bearing his testimony, the husband thanked the Swindon Ward for not giving up on them. Each of us can have similar experiences in our local wards and branches by working with and loving those who are less active. Concerning those who were not numbered among His people, Jesus said to the Nephites:. May the prayer of Alma also be our prayer:. What is compassion?
The Greek meaning of the word in this passage is deep-seated emotion that is usually seen through an action. It means that we feel for someone and we do something about it. Compassion should move us to action- it should prompt us to do something. It is very different from sympathy or pity because those do not involve action- they simply involve feeling sorry for someone. Compassion feels AND acts.
And Jesus went forth, and saw a great multitude, and was moved with compassion toward them, and he healed their sick. Matthew KJV. Jesus saw their needs and had compassion on them, doing something about their needs.
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