A Fear of Doing Good

Something's on my mind.

It's been on my mind for a while now. A month at least. I've brought it up in my institute class and in the temple prep class that I teach. I think about it all the time.

It's from Doctrine and Covenants Section 6. I love Section 6. Section 6 has gotten me through the past year. It seems like every time I read it, I notice something new.

One day, I particularly noticed these verses:

33 Fear not to do good, my sons, for whatsoever ye sow, that shall ye also reap; therefore, if ye sow good ye shall also reap good for your reward.

34 Therefore, fear not, little flock; do good; let earth and hell combine against you, for if ye are built upon my rock, they cannot prevail.

At first I was like, "That's so weird! Why are we being told not to be afraid of doing good? Who's afraid of doing good? Why would anyone be afraid of that?!"

But then I thought about all those times I considered helping somebody out, but didn't. The reasons I didn't help them out usually weren't, "I don't have the time/money/desire to help." They were usually one of the following:

1) "They probably won't want my help."

2) "They will think I'm weird for noticing that they need help. They'll think I'm a stalker/have a crush on them."

3) "Someone else will do it better than I could."

4) "They would prefer that somebody else help them."

And so and so forth. In short, I don't help because I'm afraid of looking silly or embarrassing myself or butting in where I'm not wanted.

Isn't that weird? Humans are weird.

I know I'm not the only person who feels this way. When I mentioned this to my temple prep class in connection with how service prepares us for the temple, so many students told stories of how they helped somebody that they were afraid to help or how somebody else they didn't know well helped them. Their words taught me that most of the time, people are glad to receive help of any kind. We shouldn't be so afraid of offering service to one another!

Anyways, that's my spiel. It's Christmas. Let's serve each other and not be afraid. K thnx bye.