Last month my college age daughter was looking over scholarship
applications. She was concerned because she had nothing to list in community
involvement or service. I suggested that since she had a few months until the
applications were due she had time to get involved in some service
opportunities before the deadline. We looked up service opportunities on justserve.org.
She found a few projects that she was interested in that met her availability.
Excitedly she planned how to serve. She gathered the other children in the
family to participate. The children carefully decorated lunch sacks and filled
them with snacks for parents at Ronald McDonald House. At the end of the
project we were excited to help someone else and motivated to continue with the
project each month. My daughter made an interesting comment, she said, “I
really want to serve to help people. I don't want to do this just for a grade
or an application." She committed then to serving beyond the scholarship
deadline and finding additional projects to complete.
This week I read in Alma 32:14,“because ye were
compelled to be humble ye were blessed, do ye not suppose that they are more
blessed who truly humble themselves because of the word?” Alma was speaking to
the Zoramites who had accepted the word of God but were compelled to do so
because of their adverse circumstances. I reflected on how this applied to my
sweet daughter. She had at first been compelled to serve because of an
application but her heart was changed and she was then compelled to serve
because of her love for others and her desire to follow Jesus Christ. She will
be greatly blessed because it will bring her closer to Christ and because her
commitment is fuller, more sincere, and longer lasting than if her reasons were
merely application driven. I feel gratitude seeing the woman she is becoming.
