Faith and Good Works

Good Morning, or Good Afternoon, or Good Evening, 

this post should take three to five minutes to read from start to finish.

This week's topics focuses on three topics and those topics are Good Works, Healing and Integrity. I would to explain how I have divided up the topics during this week. Today's post and tomorrow's post would be focusing
on Good Works. For Wednesday's post and Thursday's post would be focusing on Healing. Friday and maybe Saturday would be focusing on Integrity.

What is your definition and understanding of "Good Works"? How can you apply "Good Works" in your everyday life? What does it mean "Good Works" to a immediate family member? What does it mean "Good Works" to a non-member friend?

This post focuses on April 1992 General Conference talk, and it is called "Faith and Good Works" by Stephen D. Nadauld. I would like to share with you some highlights while I was reading the talk. I hope that you would be able
to learn something new while reading this post.

Elder Nadauld has mentioned the following; "... Children can provide wonderful and often humorous insights into life. We have in our family identical ten-year-old twin sons. In some circumstances they are practically impossible to tell apart. ... Life provides for each of us a full-length, wide-screen panorama of opportunities to run into ourselves. ...

"Most often, our good works are known to only a few. They are,
however, recorded in heaven." - Elder Ronald A. Rasband.

In more eloquent terms, Moroni was told by the Lord: “And if men come unto me I will show unto them their weakness … ; for if they humble themselves before me, and have faith in me, then will I make weak things become strong unto them.” (Ether 12:27.)

As we look into the mirror at the accumulation of bumps and bruises that evidence our weaknesses, may we be reminded that there are two great stabilizing forces that can anchor our souls. 

... Indeed we walk by faith - faith in the plan of redemption, faith in the role of Jesus Christ as Savior and Redeemer, faith that as the Son of God, he has the power to save, to forgive, to lift us up. 

Because of our faith, we repent, we keep his commandments, we seek his restored Church and authorized priesthood. ... When we exercise our faith in him, then Christ will help us overcome our weaknesses and the resulting “bumps and bruises.” To illustrate the second great stabilizing force, I would relate another experience. Some years ago, I was serving as a young bishop. We were holding a ward social around a swimming pool near the apartment where most of the ward members lived. I was introduced to a new member of the ward—a young woman in her twenties by the name of Carol. Carol had been afflicted with cerebral palsy since infancy. She walked with great difficulty; her hands were crippled. Her kind and dear face was also affected, as was her speech. But as I would come to understand, to know Carol was to love her. I had only to wait a few minutes to begin learning the great lesson she would teach. 

While we were talking, we watched a tall, handsome, dark-haired, very athletic young man dive off the diving board and seem to injure himself slightly. He got out of the pool, holding his neck, and went and sat under a tree. I watched as Carol struggled to prepare a plate of food and with great difficulty delivered it to him—a guileless act of service, of “good works.” Carol’s good works became a legend. She cared for the sick; she took food to the hungry; she drove people places (an experience that delivered you pale and shaken, but always in one piece); she comforted; she lifted; she blessed.

I walked with her one day on the sidewalk that passed through the apartment complex where she lived. From the windows, from the balconies, from the porches came cries of “Hi, Carol!” “How are you doing, Carol?” “Come up and see us, Carol.” And occasionally someone would say, “Oh, hi, Bishop.” It was clear that Carol was loved and greatly accepted through her wonderful good works. My most vivid recollection of Carol occurred in the spring of that year.

The ward had agreed to participate in the stake five-kilometer fun run—an oxymoronic term, to be sure. Carol wanted to be with the rest of the ward members, but we didn’t see how it would be possible. For her, just walking was a great difficulty. Nevertheless, she was determined. She struggled and trained each day to increase her endurance.

The race finished in the stadium. Two or three hundred of us were in the stands by the finish line, drinking juice and catching our breath. And then we remembered Carol—she was left somewhere back on the course. As we ran out the entrance to the stadium, she came into view, struggling to breathe, barely able to walk, but determined to finish. As she started around the track toward the finish line, a wonderful thing happened. Suddenly the track was lined on both sides with hundreds of cheering friends. Others were running alongside to support and hold her up. Carol “of great good works” had finished the race.

One day each of us will cross the finish line. Will it likewise be to the cheers and encouragement of those we have loved and served? Hopefully it will be to the approbation of our Savior, who because of our faith and our good works, will say, “Well done, thou good and faithful servant.” ...

You may or may like to read the whole talk either now or in your own time, here is the link below.
www.churchofjesuschrist.org/study/general-conference/1992/04/faith-and-good-works

Stay Tuned until next time.