Do
you ever hear a story that catches you by surprise so much that you
gasp? There were a lot of powerful stories and a few genuine miracles
shared among the recent talks at the October
2012 General Conference,
but only one elicited a real gasp of surprise from me. It was
actually a minor little story, a supporting illustration not given
great weight, but it was a source of much wonderment to me.
The
story comes from one of my favorite talks at Conference, “First
Observe, Then Serve”
by Sister Linda K. Burton, Relief Society General President. The
story comes with a footnote leading one to
a page in the Jan. 2012 Friend
(the Church’s magazine for children), where we can see that the
account she quotes was submitted by a child, Clayton H. of
Washington. Here’s the passage of interest from Sister Burton’s
talk:
A
six-year-old Primary child said: “When I was chosen to be a
class helper, I could choose a friend to work with me. I picked [a
boy in my class who bullied me] because he never gets chosen by
others. I wanted to make him feel good.”
What
did this child observe? He noticed that the class bully never got
chosen. What did he do to serve? He simply chose him to be his friend
as a class helper. Jesus taught, “Love your enemies, bless them
that curse you, do good to them that hate you.” [Matthew 25:40]
Clayton,
whoever you are, thank you, and I think I should thank your parents
and teachers also for influencing you to do something so sweet,
perhaps even majestic.
Though
my challenges have been minor compared to many, I had my share of
being bullied as an awkward, overweight child. I have strong
instincts when it comes to threatening people, and those instincts
motivate me to simply avoid them. What a surprise it was for me to
see the equation from other side of the inequality sign and to behold
a class bully through the eyes of a Christlike child who cared for
his enemy enough to approach him and include him.
And
then this though ran through my mind: “What kind of crazy
Church is this that has such parents who can raise a child like
that?” What kind of religion is it that can instill such raw
Christian power into the heart of a young boy that he would seek out
a way to help a bully feel better about himself? That’s the
kind of religion we all need.
I
should not be so surprised by such accounts, for I personally have
been the recipient of such undeserved mercy. I know the transforming
power of the forgiveness and love that was shown to the bully from
days when I was no better than a bully in my own style of sin.
When
I think of those who were kind to me when anger was deserved (in
particular, some spectacular LDS friends in my high school days),
when I think of those who sought to help me when I was floundering
and hurtful, I can only marvel at the miracle of a true Christian
man, woman, and, yes, child in this world. The surprise or perhaps
delight and relief of encountering true charity can still be enough
to sometimes make me gasp.
Jeff Lindsay has been defending the Church on the Internet since 1994, when he launched his
LDSFAQ website under JeffLindsay.com. He has also long been blogging about LDS matters on
the blog Mormanity (mormanity.blogspot.com). Jeff is a longtime resident of Appleton,
Wisconsin, who recently moved to Shanghai, China, with his wife, Kendra.
He works for an Asian corporation as head of intellectual property. Jeff and Kendra are the parents of 4 boys, 3 married and the the youngest on a mission.
He is a former innovation and IP consultant, a former professor, and former Corporate Patent
Strategist and Senior Research Fellow for a multinational corporation.
Jeff Lindsay, Cheryl Perkins and Mukund Karanjikar are authors of the book Conquering
Innovation Fatigue (John Wiley & Sons, 2009).
Jeff has a Ph.D. in Chemical Engineering from Brigham Young University and is a registered US
patent agent. He has more than 100 granted US patents and is author of numerous publications.
Jeff's hobbies include photography, amateur magic, writing, and Mandarin Chinese.
