Editor’s note: “The Spoken Word” is shared by Derrick Porter each Sunday during the weekly Tabernacle Choir at Temple Square broadcast. This will be given Sunday, June 1, 2025. This week is No. 4,994 of the broadcast.
“Strengthen ye the weak hands, and confirm the feeble knees” (Isaiah 35:3). This was the prophet Isaiah’s plea to the covenant people of God. Hundreds of years later, James recorded in his epistle, “Pure religion and undefiled before God … is this, To visit the fatherless and widows in their affliction” (James 1:27). Today, these admonitions still apply, and we each are invited to administer relief to those who suffer (see Doctrine and Covenants 44:6).
We all carry burdens in this world. For some, their suffering is more visible, physically apparent on the outside. For others, their suffering is less visible, carried on the inside. Regardless, the sufferings we each endure are real.
The good news is that a host of human beings fill this planet, and each has power to lift another’s burden — a smile to a stranger, a listening ear, a decision not to judge, an unexpected compliment. Simple acts of compassion become powerful expressions of God’s love to those in need. In a way, our hands become His hands, benefiting all within our reach.
As we strive to serve others, even in our own moments of need, we find that we are developing a higher and holier character — a Christlike character that will increasingly sustain us in our own challenges.
Religious leader Elder David A. Bednar described this Christlike character when he said, “Perhaps the greatest indicator of character is the capacity to recognize and appropriately respond to other people who are experiencing the very challenge or adversity that is most immediately and forcefully pressing upon us.” He continued: “Character is revealed, for example, in the power to discern the suffering of other people when we ourselves are suffering. … Character is demonstrated by looking and reaching outward when the natural and instinctive response is to be self-absorbed and turn inward” (see “The Character of Christ,” Brigham Young University—Idaho devotional, Jan. 25, 2003, byui.edu).
He who suffered the most, Jesus Christ, always reached outward, relieving the suffering of those around Him. His perfect character enables His perfect love to extend to each of us always.
May we commit to reaching outward to others, even though our natural tendency may be to turn inward. Jesus Himself promised: “Give, and it shall be given unto you. … For with the same measure that ye mete … it shall be measured to you again” (Luke 6:38).
Tuning in …
The “Music & the Spoken Word” broadcast is available on KSL-TV, KSL News Radio 1160AM/102.7FM, KSL.com, BYUtv, BYUradio, Dish and DirecTV, SiriusXM (Ch. 143), tabernaclechoir.org, youtube.com/TheTabernacleChoir and Amazon Alexa (must enable skill). The program is aired live on Sundays at 9:30 a.m. Mountain Time on these outlets. Look up broadcast information by state and city at musicandthespokenword.com/viewers-listeners/airing-schedules.
