Becoming Good Samaritans

As servants of God, we have the capacity and the responsibility to act as the Good Samaritan. To me, this means that I must develop compassion for those I see (Luke 10:33), and I need to "bind up [the] wounds" of those that I serve (Luke 10:34).

I love the quote in the October 2013 General Conference from President Henry B. Eyring that says,

"In your service . . . you will go to thousands of people in great spiritual need. Many, until you teach them, will not even know that they have spiritual wounds that, left untreated, will bring endless misery. You will go on the Lord’s errand to rescue them. Only the Lord can bind up their spiritual wounds as they accept the ordinances that lead to eternal life . . . [Y]ou cannot help people repair spiritual damage unless your own faith is vibrant. That means far more than reading the scriptures regularly and praying over them . . . You and I must have that assurance [of truth] before the Lord puts us in the way of a traveler we love who has been wounded by the enemies of truth." —Bind Up Their Wounds

Although this talk was directed toward priesthood holders, I know that I can bind up the wounded. I am grateful for the challenge to develop charity, or the "pure love of Christ" (Charity). Charity is the only thing that will overcome our human tendency to "to become hardened to the pains of others . . . [and] to be impatient with the person who cannot see the truth that is so plain to us" —Bind Up Their Wounds. Joseph Smith said,

“Love is one of the chief characteristics of Deity, and ought to be manifested by those who aspire to be the sons of God. A man filled with the love of God, is not content with blessing his family alone, but ranges through the whole world, anxious to bless the whole human race.” —Joseph Smith, in History of the Church, 4:227