Liberal To All

At a time when the members of the Church were righteous despite severe persecution from unbelievers, Mormon gave us this account of the generosity of the faithful: “And thus, in their prosperous circumstances, they did not send away any who were naked, or that were hungry, or that were athirst, or that were sick, or that had not been nourished; and they did not set their hearts upon riches; therefore they were liberal to all, both old and young, both bond and free, both male and female, whether out of the church or in the church, having no respect to persons as to those who stood in need” (Alma 1:30).  I love this description of the Saints: they were “liberal to all,” willing to help anyone who was in need whether they were in the church or out of it.  The Lord gave them riches in order to bless their fellow man, and they had taken to heart the words of Jacob from several centuries earlier: “And after ye have obtained a hope in Christ ye shall obtain riches, if ye seek them; and ye will seek them for the intent to do good—to clothe the naked, and to feed the hungry, and to liberate the captive, and administer relief to the sick and the afflicted” (Jacob 2:19).  The hope of the people was in Christ and not riches, and so the Lord gave them riches so they could then help others in need.  In so many instances in the Book of Mormon the riches the people received caused them to become prideful and turn away the needy, but here at this time in the 1^st year of the reign of the judges they showed that the Lord could give them wealth without setting their hearts upon them.

               Two stories come to mind as I think about examples of those who in our day are “liberal to all.”  Recently I attended the funeral of my mission president and a story was told of him that showed his generosity.  He was a surgeon and traveled around the world as part of Operation Smile, and when he did he would often try to meet with members of the Church where he was.  One time he went to Kenya, and he was able to get to know Joseph Sitati, a man who is now a member of the Seventy.  He found out that Brother Sitati and his wife had not yet been sealed in the temple because of the large expense and long journey to go to South Africa to the nearest temple.  After learning of this, when he got back home he contacted Brother Sitati and sent him the money to fly his whole family to South Africa to be sealed even though Brother Sitati had not at all asked for this from him.  He was indeed liberal to all, willing to give to an acquaintance on the other side of the world.  A second example is that of President Nelson.  Several years ago I attended a dinner in honor of a good friend of mine and his new bride on the day they were married in 2011.  He happened to be marrying the granddaughter of President Nelson and so I got to watch the apostle from a distance.  After the dinner and events of the evening, I got up to go to give a brief congratulations to my friend.  Being a few feet behind President Nelson I watched him slip $100 to my friend as a wedding gift.  It was a small thing, and yet to me it represented the generous heart he has and how he is too liberal to all.  There are of course countless other examples we can cite in our day from the prophets to the everyday Saints who are seeking to live and love as the Savior did.  I hope that I can live in such a way to earn that same description as the Nephites of the 1^st century B.C.: liberal to all.