TIME AND LOVE
I love grapefruit.
They are best in the winter beginning about December and I try to enjoy
a half every day until about May and prefer ruby-reds. In America I found WalMart has consistent, great
grapefruit, so I would frequently stop in at a favorite store to stock up. One day I waited a long time in the checkout
line. As usual being the important
business man I thought I was, I was double booked and in a hurry. I needed to get in and get out without being
bothered. The line was slow because of
what I thought was a slow WalMart teller.
As the teller totaled the bill for the customer in front of me, she
stacked my grapefruit with that customer’s groceries. The customer explained to no avail that the
grapefruit were not hers. Finally the
teller understood and as she moved the grapefruit back to the belt they spilled,
rolling all different directions on the floor at WalMart. I ran around scooping up my grapefruit and
re-bagged them. Honestly, I felt put out with her. I would not have said anything, but none the
less, I had big, critical thoughts toward her incapacity and neglect. I stepped up to pay my bill and noticed a
badge pinned to her blouse with her name and the words: “Hearing Impaired”.
Wow, I was humbled. I
was actually surprised and glad that my critical thoughts immediately evaporated. How could I have judged someone so harshly
without knowing the full story? Here she
was trying to make it in life with her problems. She was out there swinging at the ball like a
champ trying to hit a home run. I felt
admiration to WalMart for giving her the chance. I am a healthy, successful blessed guy. I had my problems but would not have traded
them for hers. And, whenever I make
mistakes I hope and actually expect people will give me the benefit of the
doubt and patiently not react harshly toward me.
I smiled at her and kindly asked how she was doing. She said, “Not so well.” Her father was in the hospital that day for a
cancer operation. She was upset, anxious
and scared. She had never married and
her father was all that she had. I felt
more guilt. I visited with her,
encouraged her and left. Over the coming
years, I saw her occasionally in the store.
I would say hi to her and ask about her.
She became an acquaintance that enriched my life.
I have a saying in business, “You can be busy and rich or
busy and poor. I choose to be busy and rich.”
This speaks to rushing around being incredibly busy but not being
productive (also pricing yourself so low that you are incredibly busy due to
your cheap prices but there is no profit in the jobs, but that is a lesson for
another day). I noticed that people can
be terribly busy all day long checking email, filling out expense reimbursement
reports, doing administrative tasks, etc.
But, we get paid to produce deliverables for a client. That is the important work, the top priority
and the basis for success. The other
busy work things do not really matter so much.
What do I learn about missionary work from these two
stories? With the first story (besides
the obvious-be forgiving), I learned that I can become caught up in my schedule
driven activities and lose sight of the most important thing; that success and
the quality in missionary work lays in our relationships with others not the
busy schedule. Quality relationships
will naturally come when we love the people.
Christ said if we love the Lord with all our heart, soul, strength and
mind and our neighbor as ourselves, then we shall live.
In the second story I learned that it is possible to go
through the motions of a successful mission and appear busy and productive yet
never do the important thing of loving the people which is the deliverable that
we are sent here to do. We can be busy
doing missionary things but the top priority and the basis for success is love
for the people.
Do not get me wrong. I
hope and ask that we are all double booked and very busy, but at the same time,
I hope we realize that really feeling love for the individuals we contact every
day is the most important part of our work.
In 1831 Joseph Smith with ten Elders were traveling down the
Missouri River in canoes. The Lord said,
“But
verily I say unto you, that it is not needful … to be moving swiftly upon the
waters, whilst the inhabitants on either side are perishing in unbelief.
(DC61:3)
The message is clear.
It is with the people where the fun is.
In your busy schedule, take time to extend yourself and love the people.
One day Jesus entered into a certain village and was invited
into the house of Martha. He and other
disciples gathered there to eat and be together.
“38 Now it came to pass, as
they went, that he entered into a certain village: and a certain woman
named Martha received
him into her house.
40 But
Martha was cumbered about much serving,
and came to him, and said, Lord, dost thou not care that my sister hath left me
to serve alone? bid her therefore that she help me.
41 And
Jesus answered and said unto her, Martha, Martha, thou art careful and
troubled about many things:
42 But
one thing is needful: and Mary hath chosen that good part, which shall not
be taken away from her.” (Luke 10:38-42)
I can just see Martha busy with “much serving”. This was the temporal affairs, the rushing in
to get the grapefruit or the emails and busy work while never getting to the
tasks that bring about real production.
We must all choose the good part, to love the people.
President Robinson
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