By love serve one another

[Galatians 5:13]

When Troy was born, my mom came to help out. The night before she left, we all went out to dinner. It was kind of a last parting celebration before she left us to our new terrifying life with THREE children. We enjoyed a very large and fantastic meal, and when we were ready to leave, we asked the waiter for the check, and he said it had "been taken care of." Um... come again? Yes, he said, very cryptically, our entire meal had been paid for. We were all pretty flabergasted (we were a party of three adults and two children, not counting newborn Troy), and cornered the poor waiter, who said he wasn't supposed to tell us who had paid for our meal. Then we all jumped on him and pinned him to the ground and twisted his arm (okay so maybe we didn't do any of that) but he finally pointed to a couple across the room. A young couple, the wife obviously very pregnant. We went over to talk to them and thank them profusely for anonymously paying for our dinner, and offered to maybe buy them dessert, which they declined. They were a little embarrassed and professed that the waiter was not supposed to tell us it was them, but they explained that it was the husband's birthday, and their little tradition is that on their birthdays, they go out to dinner and then anonymously pay for someone else's meal. They had chosen us because of our two little girls, and they were expecting their first little girl within the next month. I thought it was such a sweet little birthday tradition, and such a generous and selfless gesture. It was so touching not only that they had done something so kind for us (total strangers), but that they were so thoughtful of other people in general to even think of something like this in the first place.

Fast forward to yesterday. I was leaving the grocery store with all three of my children in tow (because I'm fearless like that!) and was taking the usual 15 minutes or so to load everyone and everything in the car. On the other side of the parking aisle, a woman was loading her groceries into the back of the van. As I turned around, with Troy on my hip, she came over and asked what size of diapers my baby wears. I had seen her cart loaded with a large box of diapers and also noticed that the children with her were too old to wear said diapers, so I assumed she was purchasing a baby gift and needed to estimate the size for a baby Troy's age. So I launched into an explanation of how he's still in size 3, but maybe a baby this age might normally wear 4, etc. Without a word she turned around a retrieved the large box of diapers from the back of her car and handed it to me. I was confused because, well, she had just gone in the store and bought it. "You... don't need these?" I asked uncertainly. "No, I bought them for someone else," she replied. I was about to say, "And... that person doesn't need them?" when I realized she meant ME. She explained that she attends a church where she'd been encouraged this week to perform random acts of service, and this was what she had chosen to do. I thanked her quite emotionally, and she was gone before I could dissolve into a blubbering mess and hug her and blurt out my life story of being starving students for SIX YEARS and how she couldn't imagine what a simple box of diapers meant to me at exactly this time, and so on and so forth. All I could think about for the rest of the day was how incredible it is that my Heavenly Father knows me and what I need and sends people in my way to serve me.

I wish I could say I'd done a wonderful job of paying it forward, so far, but I'm working on that. I explained to the girls once I got in the car what had happened, and Kate was so grateful and suggested that we do something nice for her, like maybe bake her "some of those cookies that are kind of healthy and kind of not healthy" (we've been playing around with recipes lately, she & I). I had to explain that we will likely never see her again, but instead we should "pay it forward" - return the favor to someone new. When I was pregnant with Kate (and again each pregnancy - I think it was a recurring theme) I bawled like a baby every time this Liberty Mutual commercial came on TV. (It got so bad that as soon as I saw the commercial start, I would scramble for the remote to turn it off because it got exhausting having to emotionally break down like that every time.)

So, my goal is to find my own little opportunities for random acts of service. In our family scripture study the other night, we were reading 3 Nephi 13:1-4 (this is in the Book of Mormon, so for all of you who are unfamiliar with this account, it parallels Matthew 6:1-4 in the Bible, just to give you some familiar ground):

1 Verily, verily, I say that I would that ye should do alms unto the poor; but take heed that ye do not your alms before men to be seen of them; otherwise ye have no reward of your Father who is in heaven.

 2 Therefore, when ye shall do your alms do not sound a trumpet before you, as will hypocrites do in the synagogues and in the streets, that they may have glory of men. Verily I say unto you, they have their reward.

 3 But when thou doest alms let not thy left hand know what thy right hand doeth;

 4 That thine alms may be in secret; and thy Father who seeth in secret, himself shall reward thee openly.

This segment came to my mind yesterday morning as I was leaving the grocery store parking lot. It had particularly struck me the day before because I realized that I think every time I do something nice for someone, it is not without a consciousness of how it makes me look. I know it's blatantly vain and completely selfish and almost certainly negates the good I would have done in the first place, but it's instinctive. I'm trying to get rid of that and do good for the sake of doing good, and only that. That woman with the diapers was not trying to "be seen of men" - we were in the parking lot and I'm certain that no one knew what was going on or that she was doing something kind. (I don't know, maybe she'll go back to her church and tell everyone about it, but I'm betting NOT!) She did it only for me and for her Father who seeth in secret.

Anyway, on the subject of a different kind of service, I got to spend last night volunteering as an usher in our new temple, which is being dedicated next week. The Young Women (ages 12-18) from 9 different stakes (some drove as far as 3 hours each way to come) were taken through on a VIP tour which included the bridal dressing room (left out of the public tours because of its position in the building). My post was just outside the matron's office, leading to the dressing room, guiding the tour groups through. It was so sweet to see these young girls get an inside look at the gorgeous dressing room, rarely seen by anyone, in hopes that it would encourage their goals of going there someday for their own weddings. At the end of the night, our own stake was the very last tour to pass through the temple before the dedication. We (volunteers) joined them as they came through, and it was just amazing to sit in each of the rooms and listen to our stake president (acting as tour guide) talk about each one, and watch these sweet girls soak it all in. It was late (about 10:45 pm) and so quiet and still. I spent six hours in the temple last night, and it was the best way I can think to have spent that time. The work we do in our temples is a different kind of service, but no less important, and I can't wait until it's dedicated and open for us to go in to serve. As the Book of Mormon also says, "when ye are in the service of your fellow beings ye are only in the service of your God." [Mosiah 2:17]