Quick Quotes on Service
 

“I don’t want to drive up to the pearly gates in a shiny sports car, wearing beautifully tailored clothes, my hair expertly coiffed, and with long perfectly manicured fingernails.  I want to drive up in a station wagon that has mud on the wheels from taking kids to scout camp.  I want to be there with grass stains on my shoes from mowing Sister Schenk’s lawn.  I want to be there with a smudge of peanut butter on my shirt from making sandwiches for a sick neighbor’s children.  I want to be there with a little dirt under my fingernails from helping to weed someone’s garden.  I want to be there with children’s sticky kisses on my cheeks and tears of a friend on my shoulder.  I want the Lord to know I was really here and that I really lived.” -Sister Marjorie P. Hinckley

"One for the greatest challenges we face in our hurried, self-centered lives is to follow the counsel of the Master "to do it unto one of the least of these my brethren." Take the time today to reach out to help someone less fortunate, to strengthen and lift a brother or sister in need." -Gordon B. Hinckley
 

"Almost every day brings opportunities to perform unselfish acts for others. Such acts are unlimited and can be as simple as a kind word, a helping hand, or a gracious smile."  -President James E. Faust

"Frequently, we busily search for group service projects, which are surely needed and commendable, when quiet, personal service is also urgently needed.  Sometimes the completing of an occasional group service project ironically salves our consciences when, in fact, we are constantly surrounded by a multitude of opportunities for individual service. In serving, as in true worship, we need to do some things together and some things personally. Our spiritual symmetry is our own responsibility, and balance is so important." - Neal A. Maxwell, All These Things Shall Give Thee Experience, p.55.

"We lose our life by serving and lifting others. By so doing we experience the only true and lasting happiness. Service is not something we endure on this earth so we can earn the right to live in the celestial kingdom. Service is the very fiber of which an exalted life in the celestial kingdom is made.  Knowing that service is what gives our Father in Heaven fulfillment, and knowing that we want to be where He is and as He is, why must we be commanded to serve one another? Oh, for the glorious day when these things all come naturally because of the purity of our hearts. In that day there will be no need for a commandment because we will have experienced for ourselves that we are truly happy only when we are engaged in unselfish service." -Marion G. Romney, "The Celestial Nature Of Self-Reliance," General Conference, October 1982.

"The Master taught us that 'whosoever shall compel thee to go a mile, go with him twain.' Some of the most rewarding times of our lives are those 'extra mile' hours given in service when the body says it wants to relax, but our better self emerges and says 'Here am I; send me.'" -James E. Faust, "I Believe I Can, I Knew I Could," Ensign, Nov. 2002, 52.

"Frequently, we busily search for group service projects, which are surely needed and commendable, when quiet, personal service is also urgently needed.  Sometimes the completing of an occasional group service project ironically salves our consciences when, in fact, we are constantly surrounded by a multitude of opportunities for individual service. In serving, as in true worship, we need to do some things together and some things personally. Our spiritual symmetry is our own responsibility, and balance is so important."--Neal A. Maxwell, _All These Things Shall Give Thee Experience_, p.55

"The Lord said, speaking of His servants, 'Their arm shall be my arm.' [D&C 35:14] Have you thought about this? To me this is one of the most sacred and significant and personal commissions I can read about in the holy records or elsewhere. The Lord says this arm of mine is His arm. This mind, this tongue, these hands, these feet, this purse – these are the only tools He has to work with so far as I am concerned.... So far as you are concerned, your arm, your resources, your intelligence, your tongue, your energy, are the only tools the Lord has to work with."  -Marion D. Hanks
 

"To serve others willingly and unselfishly should be one of our greatest virtues.  It is not even a matter of choice.  It is an obligation, a sacred command… Therefore, let us serve one another with brotherly love, never tiring of the demands upon us, being patient and persevering and generous." -Ezra Taft Benson, New Era, Sept. 1979, pg. 44

“Time passes. Circumstances change. Conditions vary.  Unaltered is the divine command to succor the weak and lift up the hands which hang down and strengthen the feeble knees.  Each of us has the charge to be not a doubter, but a doer, not a leaner, but a lifter.  But our complacency tree has many branches, and each spring more buds come into bloom.  Often we live side by side but do not communicate heart to heart.  There are those within the sphere of our own influence who, with outstretched hands, cry out: “Is there no balm in Gilead…” (Jer. 8:22)  Each of us must answer…In reality, it was the Redeemer who best taught this principle.  Jesus changed men.  He changed their habits and opinions and ambitions.  He changed their tempers, dispositions, and natures.  He changed their hearts.  He lifted!  He loved!  He forgave!  He redeemed!  Do we have the will to follow?” -Thomas S. Monson, With Hand and Heart, October 1971
 

“We must remember that those mortals we meet in the parking lots, offices, elevators, and elsewhere are that portion of mankind God has given us to love and to serve.  It will do us little good to speak of the general brotherhood of mankind if we cannot regard those who are all around us as our brothers and sisters.”  -Pres. Spencer W. Kimball  August 1979  Ensign
 

"To serve others willingly and unselfishly should be one of our greatest virtues. It is not even a matter of choice. It is an obligation, a sacred command. . . . Therefore, let us serve one another with brotherly love, never tiring of the demands upon us, being patient and persevering and generous"  -Ezra Taft Benson, New Era September 1979 p. 44.

  "Each one of us can make a difference in someone's life, even his or her eternal life, but we must act; we must do; we must labor diligently.  Perhaps you have received an impression to invite someone to return to church or to hear the message of the restored gospel for the first time. Go ahead, follow that impression. Why don't we all invite someone to come tomorrow and listen to a prophet's voice? Would you do that? Will you make that invitation today? With faith and a willing heart (even desire), we must trust that the Spirit will give us 'in the very hour, yea, in the very moment, what [we] shall say' (D&C 100:6). I know that to be so." -Paul K. Sybrowsky, "If Christ Had My Opportunities . . . ," Ensign, Nov. 2005, 37

"We have covenanted in the waters of baptism to love and serve [the Lord], to keep his commandments, and to put first in our lives the things of his kingdom. In return he has promised us eternal life in his Father's kingdom.... The law of sacrifice is that we are willing to sacrifice all that we have for the truth's sake – our character and reputation; our honor and applause; our good name among men; our houses, lands, and families: all things, even our very lives if need be.... We are not always called upon to live the whole law of consecration and give all of our time, talents, and means to the building up of the Lord's earthly kingdom. Few of us are called upon to sacrifice much of what we possess, and at the moment there is only an occasional martyr in the cause of revea1ed religion.  But... we must be able to live these laws to the full if we are called upon to do so."  -Bruce R. McConkie

"Let us here observe, that a religion that does not require the sacrifice of all things never has power sufficient to produce the faith necessary unto life and salvation; for, from the first existence of man, the faith necessary unto the enjoyment of life and salvation never could be obtained without the sacrifice of all earthly things. It was through this sacrifice, and this only, that God has ordained that men should enjoy eternal life.... It is in vain for persons to fancy to themselves that they are heirs with those, or can be heirs with them, who have offered their all in sacrifice, and by this means obtain faith in God and favor with him so as to obtain eternal life, unless they, in like manner, offer unto him the same sacrifice, and through that offering obtain the knowledge that they are accepted of him." Joseph Smith, Jr.
 

"Everywhere there are [people] who are in the middle of their own stories, facing dangers and hardships. . . . There will be 'angels round about you, to bear you up' (D&C 84:88). They will sustain us as we carry our earthly burdens. Often in our lives, those angels are the people around us, the people who love us, those who allow themselves to be instruments in the Lord's hands. President Spencer W. Kimball said:  'God does notice us, and he watches over us. But it is usually through another person that he meets our needs. Therefore, it is vital that we serve each other in the kingdom." -Sister Susan W. Tanner "There is Purpose in Life", New Era, Sept. 1974, 5.