On the morning of Oct. 25, 2019, I received a text message from a friend. It read:

“Hey. How is it going? How are the boys doing? Anything you need help with? I admire you being such a good father to your kids as a single dad. I know how hard that is at times.”

I needed that message that day more than I knew at the time I read it. On that day, I found out that my youngest son, who was 3 at the time, had a double ear infection and would need to have tubes put in. Additionally, he would need to have his tonsils and adenoids removed.

That evening, I reflected on the timing of my friend’s message. I’ve reflected on it a number of times since. There’s no way my friend could have known the type of day that I was about to have when he sent me that message, but he obviously felt inspired to reach out to me. That one message helped me have calmness and peace during that day because it was evidence that I had a Heavenly Father who loved me and was looking after me. He knew what I was going to face before I knew and how to help me through it.

In The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, we’re taught frequently about ministering to others. In a December 2018 article in the New Era, Eric B. Murdock wrote, “To minister means to love and care for others and to do the kinds of things the Savior would do if He were living among us today. Ministering is a way to help others feel Heavenly Father’s love and meet their spiritual and temporal needs.”

The savior was the perfect example of this. As Jean B. Bingham stated, he “smiled at, talked with, walked with, listened to, made time for, encouraged, taught, fed, and forgave. He served family and friends, neighbors and strangers alike, and He invited acquaintances and loved ones to enjoy the rich blessings of His gospel.”

I think most people can understand the importance of ministering to others. Everyone goes through trials and everyone needs to be supported. But sometimes it can be hard to see specifically how we can help. It’s easy to wonder, “What could I possibly do that would be of any significance?” It can also be difficult to help others when we ourselves are struggling. One might ask, “How can I find the time to serve others when I’m struggling to find time to do the things necessary for myself and my own family? And what if people don’t talk about or share with me their problems? How can I know how to help if I don’t know if anything is wrong?”

One reason my friend’s message has remained with me over the years is because of how simple it was. How hard is it to reach out to someone to see how they are doing and say something complimentary? On that note, I was inspired by something I came across on the website of Grand Canyon University, a private Christian university located in Phoenix, Arizona.

On Jan. 14, 2022, in an article titled “Words of Encouragement,” Molly Howard wrote, “Spreading words of encouragement does not have to be a difficult task. In fact, there are opportunities to share encouraging words every time we interact with people. Some words of encouragement might just be a comment regarding their work or day, but other times it may be more or even involve sharing the gospel.”

When I was dating my wife before we got married, I noticed that she had a gift for this. One time, we went to a store in the mall and when we were at the counter to make the purchase, she noted to the girl behind the register how she really liked a certain thing she was wearing. The change in the countenance of the girl was obvious. She went from unemotionally ringing up our purchase to being filled with gratitude that someone thought this thing she was wearing looked nice. That took no effort on my wife’s part, just a desire to be friendly.

If we did nothing else for each other, we would still do a lot of good if we looked for opportunities to be more friendly with those around us.

Henry David Thoreau said, “Could a greater miracle take place than for us to look through each other’s eyes for an instant?” This quote was used at the beginning of a video by Cleveland Clinic that outlined the myriad situations people face that you wouldn’t necessarily have any idea about just by looking at them. The video ends with the words: “If you could stand in someone else’s shoes. Hear what they hear. See what they see. Feel what they feel. Would you treat them differently?” I hope we all can look for opportunities to minister to those around us, whether we know what they are going through or not. As my friend’s text to me proved, you never know just how important that effort might be.

Contact Ryan Comer at rcomer@standard.net.

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