Double Your Benefits

Sometimes we have to decide whether to do something ourselves or help someone else to do it.

There are times when one person helps a second person to do some task and it brings benefits to both people, and sometimes even to some recipient of the second person's action, and so the benefits of our action are multiplied by not doing the task alone.

My boss is an example of multiplying benefits. I am an intern, and he makes it seem that what I am doing is valuable to the firm. But there are times when I realize that he could do something better than I could, and he lets me do it just so I can learn and then leave with those skills in a few months. I believe that he receives joy from giving me the chance, I receive joy from learning, and despite my trouble in accomplishing tasks, the firm stays in business.

On my mission in Guatemala, one of the most exhilarating moments of my life happened by seeing somebody else do the work that I normally did. My friend had been baptized and was striving to live the principles of the Gospel of Jesus Christ. One evening, we stopped by the home of my friend's parents and happened to find my friend there too (he had moved out by then). His family agreed to listen to a message from us; we all sang a song that my friend chose, said a prayer, my missionary companion and I shared a few words, and then the best part came as my friend bore his testimony and expressed his desire that his family be baptized. I couldn't believe how much better it was to hear him pass on an invitation that he had once received rather than invite by ourselves.

Referring to Jesus Christ, President Dieter F. Uchtdorf of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints said, "As we emulate His perfect example, our hands can become His hands; our eyes, His eyes; our heart, His heart. . . He not only taught but also showed us how to 'succor the weak, lift up the hands which hang down, and strengthen the feeble knees.'"