One of the greatest keys to our happiness is service. Over the years I’ve worked many different kinds of employment at varying rates of pay, and I’ve come to the conclusion that no one pays better wages than God, and provides a more rewarding working environment while doing so. May I share a story?

“What! Me teach that class of incorrigible teenagers?” Naida thought as she walked out of the church. “[Ah!] Trouble comes in bunches.”

Here she was living with her terminally ill grandmother – caring for her, while her husband was half-a-world away in Okinawa, Japan in the military. Her hands were also full caring for two pre-schoolers, not to mention the ravenous old coal furnace for which she seemed to be constantly packing coal to keep them warm in the subzero weather. And now this! She cried all the way home.

Naida had heard of this group, and she wanted nothing to do with them. But as she began to pray, she realized how good the Savior had been to her. It was the least she could do to teach that class, overwhelming as it seemed.

Well, she went to work, and as the months passed, she came to know and love each of those teenagers.

Then one night on Christmas Eve, she found herself all alone sitting on the floor near the tree trying in vain to assemble a toy train set for her little boy. Outside a heavy snow was falling, when from out of nowhere, a terrible aching filled her heart; she felt so lonely. Her husband was gone, Grandma’s health was failing fast, – the children, the weather, the furnace – suddenly it was all more than she could bear. She began to cry and pour out her heart to God. As she knelt there, the doorbell rang. It was past midnight; who in the world could that be?

When she opened the door, she was surprised to see three of the boys from her Sunday school class. They’d been out sledding and had seen her light, and decided to stop in and wish her a Merry Christmas.

She invited them in and filled them up with hot chocolate and pie. They talked. It wasn’t long before the boys sensing the situation had assembled the train set, and then sat down on the floor and helped her finish wrapping all the presents for the family. Everything was ready before too long for the big morning. And then as they left, each boy – each of those incorrigible boys hugged her and thanked her for being such a good teacher. She stood watching them go, and you know somehow – her burdens didn’t seem as heavy as they had just a little while ago.

A few weeks later, Grandma worsened. Naida spent cherished precious farewell hours with her in the hospital. And while she did so, the girls from her Sunday school class took turns tending her children and cooking dinner for the family. The boys even built a coal shed and a chute so that she wouldn’t have to pack coal anymore. They surrounded her with love, and were her survival in a difficult time.

Well, Grandma soon died, and Naida’s husband eventually returned from Japan, and things got back to normal. But Naida has never forgotten that ‘incorrigible class’ that she dreaded to serve.

“… Inasmuch as ye have done it unto one of the least of these my brethren, ye have done it unto me.” (Matthew 25:40)

Have a good Sabbath!