There is a story about a man who observed a boy throwing starfish that had washed up with the tide back into the ocean. The man asked the boy what he was doing. The boy responded, "I am throwing the starfish back into the ocean so that they do not dry up and die." The man cried, "You cannot possibly throw all these starfish back into the ocean. There are thousands." The boy looked at the starfish in his hand as he threw it gently back into the water. "It mattered to that one."

I am uplifted daily by good and kind moments, received and given. This blog is the story of the starfish that I have had the pleasure to witness being thrown back into the ocean.

Sunday, November 30, 2014

Mother Teresa and her Starfish

"A journalist once questioned Mother Teresa of Calcutta about her hopeless task of rescuing the destitute in that city. He said that, statistically speaking, she was accomplishing absolutely nothing. This remarkable little woman shot back that her work was about love, not statistics. Notwithstanding the staggering number beyond her reach, she said she could keep the commandment to love God and her neighbor by serving those within her reach with whatever resources she had. “What we do is nothing but a drop in the ocean,” she would say on another occasion. “But if we didn’t do it, the ocean would be one drop less [than it is].”9 Soberly, the journalist concluded that Christianity is obviously not a statistical endeavor. He reasoned that if there would be more joy in heaven over one sinner who repents than over the ninety and nine who need no repentance, then apparently God is not overly preoccupied with percentages.10"

Elder Jeffrey R Holland
October 2014
Posted by at
Labels:

No comments:

Post a Comment

Subscribe to: Post Comments (Atom)