Merry Christmas, everybody! I wanted to do a Christmas related message on this particular Sunday, but I think I'll save that until it's closer to the actual holiday. So today, I'm going to go a little off the rails today. I'm going to be talking about service... again. But, I'm going to address an issue I have with the attitude of some people and service.
If you recall my post from last week, I said that we should do what is right instead of being idle. In fact, that's D&C 88:124. "Cease to be idle; cease to be unclean; cease to find fault one with another; cease to sleep longer than is needful; retire to thy bed early, that ye may not be weary; arise early, that your bodies and your minds may be invigorated." However, I should have added something very important. While you are doing something good for others, it's important to know that you're doing it for them. You are not supposed to do it for yourself. Service is not a tool for you to look good. It is, instead, just a good thing to do in general.
To help me illustrate my point, let's take a look at the season 2 episode, "The Mysterious Mare Do Well." This is the episode that a lot of people have said is the worst episode because Rainbow Dash is out of character. However, Rainbow's character is perfectly fine. However, I don't want to spend too much on this, because I've already spent forty minutes doing some research and getting a firm grasp on my opinion. Anyways, the plot of the episode is that Rainbow Dash saves a foal from a well (why Ponyville has a well when they have plumbing, I don't know) and then is showered with attention. Rainbow Dash let's the fame get to her head, and thus she starts doing heroic deeds just to boost her own ego. Spoilers ahead. Go to the next paragraph if you haven't seen the episode yet. And in doing so, her friends create Mare Do Well, so that they can bring Rainbow down a peg.
So, the moral that you can extract from this is to do good things for the right reason. Doing things for attention or reward should not be the reason you help people. You do it because it's the right thing to do, and it will make somebody's day a little better. Don't help somebody with the thought, "What's in it for me?" Help somebody with the thought, "What can I do for them?" That's all that really needs to be said about it.
However, there's also a problem that can come with this. I may be wrong with this, but here's my problem. I had this problem, and I still have this problem. Even though it's not as bad as it was, this is still something I think about. I may have done some good things for people, I didn't ask for anything in return, and I wasn't doing it for the attention. Quite frankly, nobody was going to notice me because I'm not exactly that "popular" with my peers. But I still wasn't doing it for the right reasons. I was doing it because I knew that's what it took to go to Heaven. I wasn't thinking, "This person won't have this worry about." I was thinking, "I'm certain to go to heaven by doing this." I apologized to people for doing them wrong, not because I knew that I would be happier and that was the right thing to do, but because I knew that that's what Heavenly Father would have wanted me to do. I think I might be just thinking too much about this, but I wasn't doing it for them. I was doing it for Heavenly Father, and I know that that's not the way he wanted me to do it.
In conclusion, don't just do it for yourself. Don't do it because you know that it's the right thing to do. Do it because people being happy is the greatest reward.

-Joe

You know Joe. It does remind me of Josh Scorcher's review of the Mysterious Mare Do Well. He putted out of what the episode is trying to put out. Do the right thing for the right reasons. That is a very good moral.
Here is the part of this video. 18:46

4904777
Very nice. I like him!