Being Useful

Lately, I have been reading You Learn by Living by Eleanor Roosevelt. I've learned a lot! I love this book. For people who question how much you could learn from a book like this that was published in 1960, I challenge you to read it and find for yourself how much it is still relevant today. 

Yesterday, I read a chapter about being useful. In this chapter, she points out that we cannot have true happiness by sitting around waiting for other people to do everything for us. When we get out into the community and do things for other people, it can bring us happiness. This chapter starts with her saying, "Happiness is not a goal, it is a by-product. Paradoxically, the one sure way to be happy is deliberately to map out a way of life in which one would please oneself completely and exclusively. After a short time, a very short time, there would be little that one really enjoyed. For what keeps our interest in life and makes us look forward to tomorrow is giving pleasure to other people...Usefulness, whatever form it may take, is the price we should pay for the air we breathe and the food we eat at the privilege of being alive. And it is its own reward, as well, for itis the beginning of happiness, just as self-pity and withdrawal from the battle are the beginning of misery." She gives examples over being useful (giving service) throughout this chapter. She speaks of helping less privileged boys who needed someone to love and believe in them. She also talks about teaching our children to participate in family responsibilities and in the community. This coincides with the teachings of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints in which we are taught to serve our neighbor. 

In Mosiah chapter 2 in the Book of Mormon, King Benjamin teaches the Nephites the importance of service. He explains to them that not only is he asking them to serve each other, he does it himself. In verse 12, he says, "I say unto you that as I have suffered to spend my days in your service, even up to this time, and have not sought gold nor silver nor any manner of riches of you." Then, he goes on in verses 16 and 17 to say, "Behold, I say unto you that because I said unto you that I had spent my days in your service, I do not desire to boast, for I have only been in the service of God. And behold, I tell you these things that ye may learn wisdom; that ye may learn that when ye are in the service of your fellow beings ye are only in the service of your God." He is teaching us that no one is above serving; not even the king. This a commandment of the Lord; not a commandment of men. 

I love learning from people who have really lived life. Eleanor Roosevelt was a wise woman who we can still learn from if we take the time to do so. The Book of Mormon, as well as other books of scripture, are filled with examples of people we can look up to and follow their examples. The more I read good book filled with wisdom, the better person I want to be. For now, I am going to look for ways to be useful by serving those around me.