"Because I have been given much, I too must give"

This week we read a lot about service and giving back. This is a topic very near and dear to me. Growing up my family receive a lot of help from people around us. It was something my mom was very grateful for, but also something she worked very hard not to have to take. Even when we had very little my mom was always helping others, we barely had a roof over our own heads and sometimes no food for our mouths, and yet often she would always let people come stay with us because she said we had more than they did.

Growing up this way has left me with my own version of “white guilt.” I say my own version because I don’t believe it is typical, in that I do it because I truly feel that “because I have been given much, I too must give.” My husband often comments on how I inherited my mother’s bad habit of helping someone so much that it turns into my own detriment. I can’t help it, I want to cry every time I see someone in need and I can’t help. I am thankful for this part of my personality. I feel the closest to my Father in Heaven when I am helping and serving his children. I hope that no matter where my life takes me, I will never lose this part of me.