I don’t want to live in the kind of world where we don’t look out for each other. Not just the people that are close to us, but anybody who needs a helping hand. I can’t change the way anybody else thinks, or what they choose to do, but I can do my bit. – Charles de Lint
A good way to forget your troubles is to help others out of theirs. Serving others is never entirely unselfish, because the giver always receives.
Think about what questions you will be asked at the close of your life on earth. The question will not be “How much have you got?” but “How much have you given?” Not “How much have you won?” but “How much have you done?” Not “How much you have saved?” but “How much have you sacrificed?” It will be “How much have you loved and served?” not “How much were you honoured?” Before looking for a way to get, look for a way to give. Selfishness is the greatest curse of the human race. Self-interest is a fire that consumes other and then itself. Almost all of our unhappiness is the result of selfishness. Instead, think in terms of what the other person wants, not just what you want. It is absolutely true that you can succeed best and quickest by helping others succeed.
The measure of life is not in its duration, but rather in its donation. Everyone can be great because everyone can serve. When you are serving others, life is no longer meaningless. Anne Frank once said, “No one has ever become poor by giving.” How true that is, is it not by lifting others that we ourselves get lifted? To have it make some difference that you have lived and lived well.”
Your own soul is nourished when you are kind; it is destroyed when you are cruel. Proverbs 11:17
Written by Dr Charisse le Roux
