Description
Never Fail To Give
How many of you have ever felt betrayed, swindled or otherwise misused by someone else? If perchance you have felt that way, or maybe you feel that way right now, please consider the following story shared by Elder Boyd K. Packer back in 1962.
Many years ago there was a young mother who received a knock one morning at her door. When she opened the door, she found a large frightened looking man asking her for money.
“We have no money,” she said.
Persistently, the man pressed his demands insisting that she give him some money. Finally, he said, “I’m hungry. I would like to get something to eat.”
“Well,” the woman said, “If that’s the case, then I can help you.”
So off to the kitchen she went, and soon she returned with a small sack lunch prepared from her meager food supply. The man looked displeased as she gave him the lunch, but he took it and he left. Now, from the doorway she watched that man go down the lane to the main road. As soon as he crossed the property line, he took the lunch and threw it over the fence into the bushes. The woman was angered, as you can imagine, by the ingratitude and the waste.
Now, about a week later, this same mother was interrupted again by another knock at her door. Upon opening it she discovered a tall raw-boned teenager making essentially the same request, “We need help; we’re hungry. Could you please give us some food or money?”
Remembering the previous experience, she quickly responded, “No! I’m sorry. I’m busy. I can’t help you today.”
Without a word of protest, the young man turned away. She watched him walk out the gate. And it was then that she noticed a wagon and a team of horses parked out front. In the wagon were a father, mother, and several children. As the young man swung up into the wagon, he looked back at her with a sorrowful pained expression. Pierced by that look, she hesitated, but it was too late. The team had moved out and the wagon was already down the lane.
Perhaps it was with a hint of pain and regret that ever after that, that dear mother would tell that story to her children and would close with this moral, “Never fail to give that which you have to someone who’s in need.”
I conclude from that:
To refuse to love anyone again because your love was once rejected, or to refuse to trust anyone again because your trust was once broken, or to refuse to give anything that you have to anyone again because your giving was once abused – is to refuse to live. Life is a risk. So is love! They always have been. It’s all about loving, trusting, and giving of ourselves. Imagine where we would be if the Savior gave us only one chance.
Adapted from Boyd K. Packer, CR, April 1962
