When our faith in Jesus Christ leads us to qualify for the joy of His forgiveness, we feel a desire to serve others for Him.
I think that is the most universal manifestation of feeling the Spirit – the outward desire to impart to others.
There are 31 women and girls in our family, beginning with my wife and progressing to include our three newest great-granddaughters. Some are here with us this evening. Five are under the age of 12. This may be their first meeting in the Conference Center with their sisters in the Savior’s Church. Each will take a different set of memories and make her own commitments from this experience tonight.
There are three memories and three commitments that I pray will stay with them over a lifetime and even beyond. The memories are of feelings. And the commitments are of things to do.
I suspect that each commitment is coupled with a feeling.
The feeling of greatest importance is love. You have felt the love of the great sister leaders who have spoken. And you have felt by the Spirit that they loved you without even knowing you because they felt Heavenly Father’s and the Savior’s love for you. That is why they want so much to serve you and to have you receive the blessings God wants for you.
You have felt love for others tonight—for friends, schoolmates, neighbors, and even someone who just came into your life, a stranger. That feeling of love is a gift from God. The scriptures call it “charity” and “the pure love of Christ.” You have felt that love tonight, and you can receive it often if you seek it.
A second feeling you have had tonight was the influence of the Holy Ghost. Sisters have promised you this day that the Holy Ghost will guide you to find the service the Lord would have you give to others for Him. You have felt by the Spirit that their promise was from the Lord and that it is true. …
… You may have received that blessing tonight. For instance, a name or a face of someone in need may have come to your mind during this meeting. It could have been only a fleeting thought, but because of what you heard tonight, you will pray about it, trusting that God will lead you to do the good He wants for them. As such prayers become a pattern in your life, you and others will be changed for the better.
The third feeling you have had tonight is that you want to be closer to the Savior.
Those three feelings will definitely lead you to do good.
So, with those feelings, the first thing you must commit to do is to go and serve, knowing that you do not go alone. When you go to comfort and serve anyone for the Savior, He prepares the way before you. …
One of the ways He goes before your face is to prepare the heart of a person He has asked you to serve. He will prepare your heart as well.
You will also find that the Lord puts helpers by your side—on your right, on your left, and all around you. You do not go alone to serve others for Him. …
… The second thing you must do is remember the Lord as you go in service for Him. The Lord not only goes before our faces and sends angels to serve with us, but He also feels the comfort we give others as if we had given it to Him. …
… You will pray to know whom the Father would have you serve out of love for Him and for our Savior. And you will not expect a public memorial, following the example of the woman in Mark’s scriptural account, whose holy deed to honor the Savior of the world is remembered (anointing His feet with oil) but not her name.
… And the third thing I hope they will do is to be personally modest about their good works.
I was wrong, there is no parallelism between the feelings and the commitments.
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