Lift Up the Hands that Hang Down

Today was a good day at church. It was conference day in our little branch. We had quiet, emotional messages on angels, angels in human form and other means God uses to communicate with us and help us through struggles and difficult circumstances. Dennis Prager observed during one of his "Happiness Hours" that as we get older, we are more likely to be brought to tears by hearing about acts of kindness, help or courage than by hearing about cruelty, disaster or weakness. Seems right to me.

But the thing which touched me most was watching the visiting male leadership, after the meeting, choose for their first greeting a young father who is having some serious emotional and financial difficulties. They talked with him not as someone who needed sympathy and aid, but as someone who was important for them to get to know. I could see immediately a difference in his level of self-confidence. It was a great example to me of following the commandment to "Lift up the hands that hang down and strengthen the feeble knees".

And there were other examples of the same kind of support, from both men and women. We had a few people we don't usually see in attendance, because of the baptism of a young boy. I was glad that this was the day that they had come to church. Lora and I were asked by the Stake Relief Society visitors to watch carefully for families in the branch who might be having financial difficulty due to the economy. But the needs addressed today through personal interactions were probably more important.