The world is sometimes dark and often cynical. And very often selfish. It’s easy to get caught up in our own desires and our own wants and our own needs. There are so many of them, and school and work and friends keep us so busy. “Doing good” sometimes can seem like just not “doing bad.”
But we need to be active. We need to reach out our hands to other people. We need to look to other people’s needs and be willing to put forth effort to meet them. We can be good influences.
In Mormon belief, we can be missionaries through example as well as through the Mormon missionary program. If we are kind to others, if we live what we believe, people will notice.
President Gordon B. Hinckley said:
“There is no end to the good we can do, to the influence we can have with others. Let us not dwell on the critical or the negative. Let us pray for strength; let us pray for capacity and desire to assist others. Let us radiate the light of the gospel at all times and all places, that the Spirit of the Redeemer may radiate from us.”
(Gordon B. Hinckley, “The Need for Greater Kindness,” Ensign, May 2006, 61)