Christians everywhere know the two commandments Jesus identified as the greatest:
“Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy mind. . . .
“And the second is like unto it, Thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself.
“On these two commandments hang all the law and the prophets” (Matthew 22:37, 39–40).
In his 2012 address “Be Anxiously Engaged,” Elder Ballard discusses what we should expect in fulfilling these commandments and how we can do it.
One of the challenges that disciples of Christ often face is the feeling that they’re not doing enough. Elder Ballard contextualizes this worry using the example of an individual bee’s contribution to the hive:
Though seemingly insignificant when compared to the total, each bee’s one-twelfth of a teaspoon of honey is vital to the life of the hive. The bees depend on each other. Work that would be overwhelming for a few bees to do becomes lighter because all of the bees faithfully do their part.
Just as individual bees small contributions create a hive worth of honey, our individual efforts to love and serve God and one another cumulatively help fill the world with His grace:
These simple, daily acts of service may not seem like much in and of themselves, but when considered collectively they become just like the one-twelfth teaspoon of honey contributed by a single bee to the hive. . . . When [our] love is tangibly manifest in millions of acts of Christian kindness, it will sweeten and nourish the world with the life-sustaining nectar of faith, hope, and charity.
Knowing then that our contributions will be small — and that’s okay — how can we be nonetheless be diligent? Elder Ballard has an answer:
In your morning prayer each new day, ask Heavenly Father to guide you to recognize an opportunity to serve one of His precious children. Then go throughout the day with your heart full of faith and love, looking for someone to help. Stay focused, just like the honeybees focus on the flowers from which to gather nectar and pollen. If you do this, your spiritual sensitivities will be enlarged and you will discover opportunities to serve that you never before realized were possible.
Read more about how we can fulfill the Savior’s two great commandments on lds.org.
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