What This Work Is All About

Here are a couple of quotes from one of those talks years ago that has in many respects changed my whole perspective on my purpose in life and the work of the Master.

The whole talk can be read by clicking on the following link. http://lds.org/ensign/2002/08/what-this-work-is-all-about?lang=eng

Gordon B. Hinckley, "What This Work Is All About", Ensign, Aug. 2002, 2–7

Our Responsibility
Under the sacred and compelling trust we have as members of the Church of Jesus Christ, ours is a work of redemption, of lifting and saving those who need help. Ours is a task of raising the sights of those of our people who fail to realize the great potential that lies within them. Ours is the responsibility of building self-reliance, of encouraging and cultivating happy homes where fathers and mothers love and respect one another and children grow in an atmosphere of peace and affection and appreciation.
Is not this what the work is all about? Said the Savior, “I am come that they might have life, and that they might have it more abundantly” (John 10:10). Without great abundance of the things of the world, these, my friends, live abundantly. People such as they are the strength of the Church. In their hearts is a quiet and solid conviction that God lives and that we are accountable to Him; that Jesus is the Christ, the Way, the Truth, the Life (see John 14:6); that this work is Their work; that it is true; and that gladness and peace and healing come in walking in obedience to the commandments of God (see D&C 89:18), as set forth in the teachings of the Church.
This work of ours is a great work of redemption. All of us must do more because the consequences can be so remarkable and everlasting. This is our Father’s work, and He has laid upon us a divine injunction to seek out and strengthen those in need and those who are weak. As we do so, the homes of our people will be filled with an increased measure of love; the nation, whatever nation it be, will be strengthened by reason of the virtue of such people; and the Church and kingdom of God will roll forward in majesty and power on its divinely appointed mission.

Before this article I found myself complaining about those who didn't seem to catch the same vision I did of cooperation with and participation in the Kingdom of God. I realize now my arrogance, but it took this article to stifle my frustrations and remind me that lifting my neighbor, whether member or not, is what this work is all about. We are all inadequate in some part of our spirituality and one of the great gifts of the gospel is that we have each other to keep pushing and prodding, lifting and building.

I am renewed in my determination to be less frustrated, and seek to build myself, and others, toward Christ, whatever their state may be.