LDS Quotes on Kindness
“But how are we to be made happy? There is one course—love the Giver more than the gift.”
| JD 9:31, Brigham Young, The Gifts of God, Etc.
There is an old Relief Society story about a child who came in as his mother was putting the finishing touches on a cake. He asked: “Who are we giving that away to?” There is still merit in this little incident, as we can see that he is from a home where they are used to giving service to others.
| Finding Joy by Serving Others
Nothing is so much calculated to lead people to forsake sin as to take them by the hand and watch over them with tenderness. When persons manifest the least kindness and love to me, O what pow’r it has over my mind, while the opposite course has a tendency to harrow up all the harsh feelings and depress the human mind.
| Nauvoo Relief Society Minute Book, Page 62
Letting myself grieve taught me how to show Christlike compassion for and sensitivity to others. In my observation, grief can change our nature if we let it turn us to the Savior. I have seen grief transform strangers into loving sisters. Once when my son was hospitalized, I was in the room with him, crying. There was another family with their own sick child on the other side of the room. Eventually I heard the curtain between us drawn aside, and I looked up to see the mother approaching me. She had been a stranger until then—she was from a different country, spoke a different native language, and knew no details of my son’s condition. Wrapping her arms tightly around me while I cried, she said in her language, ‘It’s going to be OK. He’s going to be OK. He really is.’ That mother had surely experienced grief in her own life that had transformed her into a Christlike person who could wrap her arms around a grieving stranger.
“We, more than others, should carry jumper and tow cables not only in our cars, but also in our hearts, by which means we can send the needed boost or charge of encouragement or the added momentum to mortal neighbors.”
| All These Things Shall Give Thee Experience
“How godlike a quality is mercy. It cannot be legislated. It must come from the heart. It must be stirred up from within. It is part of the endowment each of us receives as a son or daughter of God and partaker of a divine birthright. I plead for an effort among all of us to give greater expression and wider latitude to this instinct which lies within us. I am convinced that there comes a time, possibly many times, within our lives when we might cry out for mercy on the part of others. How can we expect it unless we have been merciful ourselves?”
| Blessed Are the Merciful
Think the best of each other, especially of those you say you love. Assume the good and doubt the bad.
“The father should be full of kindness, and endeavor to happify and cheer the mother, that her heart may be comforted and her affections unimpaired in her earthly protector, that her love for God and righteousness may vibrate throughout her whole being.”
| Journal of Discourses, 8:62
“Never, never be afraid to do what’s right, especially if the well-being of a person . . . is at stake. Society’s punishments are small compared to the wounds we inflict on our soul when we look the other way.”