This morning at breakfast, as I heaved a huge sigh and said to my youngest son, "Sometimes I just..." "Need a hug?" He interjected. Yes, sometimes I just need a hug. And it started me thinking about how sometimes in life, we just need a hug. But what do you do on those days when you are alone and no one is there to give you a hug? Because right now, our weather is the beginning of grayer and shorter days and longer nights and cold weather...this could be the focus of darkness and feelings of loneliness. Not that you have this feeling all the time, but sometimes, you just... need a hug. So, how can we deal with these real feelings so that we don't "wallow" in this? (My friend said that yesterday "wallow", and it was perfectly said! Wallowing isn't a good thing, it just leaves us stuck in the mud.) So, how do you get a hug when no one else is around?
I have found a way that helps me feel like I'm getting a hug and like hugging the whole world. It really is a simple thing. It is right in line with the "great commandment" (Matt. 22:36-40) and keeping the commandments is an automatic happy feeling (see Mosiah 2:41). But sometimes we need an extra boost because we are living in this "fallen state" (see 1 Nephi 10:6). The extra boost comes when we "are in the service of [our fellow beings [we] are only in the service of [our] God" (Mosiah 2:17). Serving others helps us get outside of ourselves and have a new view, and see things with a different perspective. Sometimes just giving us the opportunity to serve others helps us say, "I'll keep my bag of troubles, or trials. They aren't so bad." And we are able to "give thanks" for the trials or the little trip-me-ups with which we are blessed. As we serve others we are serving Christ. And it is a way we can "hug" Him. He wants us to love others. By keeping His commandments (the greatest is to love God and love our neighbor) we show our love for Him (John 14:15). We can "hug" Him and He hugs us back, "encircling [us] about eternally in the arms of his love" (2 Nephi 1:15). Feel Him loving you. Feel His hug as you serve others.
Giving thanks...that is a powerful way to give and receive a hug. We have been commanded to "give thanks in all things" (Mosiah 26:39; see also Ephesians 5:20; D&C 59:7). When we start giving thanks for everything something happens inside. There comes a feeling of love, of appreciation, of acceptance, of brotherly kindness. We let go of envy and are humbled by the blessings which Heavenly Father has given us individually and we stop comparing what we don't have to what others might have. Giving thanks is a gift we can give back to our Creator, because He has us specifically in mind when He gives us all we have. It is a way we can "hug" our Savior. He has given us EVERYTHING!!! He has given us our very lives, (Mosiah 4:21), even His own life, that we might live (see Mosiah 3:7-10).
In the Children's Primary Song I Feel My Savior's Love the last verse says: "I'll share my Savior's love by serving others freely. In serving I am blessed. In giving I receive." This is truth. Feel it. We can feel the Savior's love all around us as we serve and give thanks in all we have.This I testify is the way to receive and to give hugs!
Many Hugs!!! OOOOOOOOOOOO!!!
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