Today I'm going to talk about how God loves others.
For a lot of my life, there's always been an emphasis that Heavenly Father loves all of his children, including myself. There was a push from leaders of "Remember that He loves
you, individually." For some reason, I think that begins to take a selfish root (because we all know Satan likes to twist true things to make them evil). I think that people, me at least sometimes, begin to think that because God loves me so much, I should get this and that and this, or we begin to simply forget that God can bless the lives of others because He loves them too. We can get jealous at times of others' blessings, and wonder where ours are. But I've come to learn that Heavenly Father loves me because I have first learned that He loves His other children.
We had a Stake Day of Service for Stake Conference. Our ward decided to rake the leaves on the church grounds. When we first started going over to the church, I wondered where we would get all the rakes (because let's be real: a college student isn't going to think about bringing one to college). Apparently, one of Bishop's neighbors had a whole bunch of rakes that he willingly lent to our ward. But he was an older gentleman, with a large yard of his own, and this year had been exceptionally hard for him to rake his leaves. He was out of town on the day we raked the church grounds, so when Sister Anderson told us about this brother, we all decided that those who could, would go over right then and rake his yard.
There was maybe a dozen or so people there raking this huge yard, but we got most of it done in about an hour/hour and a half. As we were in the backyard, I stopped to rest for a moment, and looked around to see all of the people (who had already been raking for 2 hours), continuing to work hard to rake the yard of a man none of us had ever met. It was then that I realized how much Heavenly Father truly loved this man we were serving. If Heavenly Father didn't love this brother of mine, no way would He have made it possible for so many people to serve this way for a total stranger. As I realized the love Heavenly Father had for this little old man, I also realized that He loves me that same way. He sends so many blessings my way--so many angels--because he loves me.
Another experience I had was when a group of friends decided to go to an elderly care center to visit. We went to what's called "Memory Lane," where most people there have dementia or something similar. At first it was awkward to try and have conversation, especially with those who weren't completely there...But after a while, we were able to get the talking going and have a grand time with those old folk. My friend asked at one point if they liked listening to piano music (there was a piano in the room). Some replied that they did enjoy it, so he volunteered me to go play some music. There was a book full of oldies which was absolutely perfect. I chose a few songs that were really popular, such as Dream a Little Dream of Me, and even though I couldn't see or hear any of their reactions, I'm pretty sure they did enjoy it. Later, a woman really wanted to hear the piano, so they called me over to play. I was able to ask her what songs she liked, and she told me hymns. As I played, I could feel the Spirit enter the room because of those songs, and the feelings of love for those people which accompanied them. Another lady cried out that she wanted to hear hymn 301: I Am a Child of God. It really got to me, and continues to do so. We were all children of God sitting there together, visiting and loving one another. I think that at that moment, my friends and I were representatives of Heavenly Father, showing His love to His children in that facility. How neat it was to love them that day! And I look forward to when we go back and visit!
One last experience that really showed me this principle, was when I attended a Musical Therapy concert. The MT department put on a concert where they presented different possible scenarios they may be faced with, and how they would go about solving it with music. To think of people dedicating their life to helping others with their talents in that way just fills me with the warm and fuzzies. I think that it is so incredible that we have music, and that I have the talents in music, and others do to, to reach out and touch the lives of others, to improve their lives, and in turn improve ours.
Heavenly Father is absolutely the coolest. He knows exactly what everyone needs, and He sends us as His angels for others, and sends us angels in return. I think I am just beginning to learn this, and I can't wait to continue to see and be His hands as all of us children go through life. :)
In the name of Jesus Christ I share these things to testify of Him and His love. Amen.
