TheDiscipleMD

Many years ago, my sons and I helped a poor elderly woman and her bed-stricken daughter move from one apartment to another. She was my wife’s patient, who was a home health care nurse.  After we helped her,  this woman often talked about the service we gave her. She had no one to help her and was so happy that my wife “volunteered” her sons and husband. After that, this kind woman gave muffins to my wife almost every time she stopped in to see her, which was often the case. My wife made the mistake of telling her we loved them, which is true. This elderly woman went down to the local Costco and bought muffins in bulk. Once, she purchased 60 muffins and gave them to us.

We barely had room to freeze them. No sooner did we get low on the muffins than my wife came home with a new batch. They would overwhelm our freezer if I weren’t constantly eating them!  They become like “Tribbles”, the fictional small, soft, and gentle animal that appeared in numerous Star Trek episodes. The “Tribbles” multiplied so quickly that they endangered the Starship Enterprise. My wife received a phone call daily from this patient wanting to know if I was enjoying the muffins and which were my favorites so she could buy more. She dubbed my wife and I “The Prince and Princess of Muffins.”

Once, while my wife and I were in the car shopping, this patient called. After a twenty-minute conversation that centered entirely around how many muffins we were eating, what types were the tastiest, and how many more this patient would buy that week, my wife told her she had to go. After she hung up she smiled at me and called me “Prince Muffin.”  I certainly enjoyed the muffins, as did my wife. We were tempted to tell this kind lady that we could get the muffins as we, too, are members of a wholesale food company. Yet, we hesitated to do so because it is clear that this patient loved buying, talking about, and giving us these muffins. The reality is that this woman and her bedridden daughter derived great joy in serving us. They couldn’t do much under their circumstances, but they could show their love to an empathetic nurse and her husband by giving them muffins. Their service humbled me! Although my wife and I could afford to buy muffins, somehow, when I ate the ones given to us by these kind women, I enjoyed and savored the taste because love has a special flavor of its own.

Spencer Kimball counseled us:

“I know (a) man who has never given thought to himself. His every desire was for the protection and pleasure of those about him. No task was too great, no sacrifice too much for him to make for his fellowmen. His means brought relief from physical suffering; his kind work and thoughtfulness brought comfort and cheer and courage. Wherever people were in distress, he was on hand, cheering the discouraged, burying the dead, comforting the bereaved, and proving himself a friend in need. His time, his means, and his energies were lavished upon those needing assistance. Having given himself freely, by that same act he has added to his mental, physical, and moral stature until today he stands in his declining years a power for good, an example and an inspiration to many. He has developed and grown until he is everywhere acclaimed, loved, and appreciated. He has given life and in a real way has truly found the abundant life. There is great security in spirituality, and we cannot have spirituality without service!  (Chapter 8: Selfless Service,” Teachings of Presidents of the Church: Spencer W. Kimball, (2006), 79–88. (“The Disciple, #124, Oct. 7, 2007)

Like the man above who spent a lifetime serving others,  this woman and her daughter stood as an inspiration and an example to me of how one can serve, even in the hardest of circumstances.  Indeed, they taught me that serving has no bounds and does not discriminate.   All of us can serve our fellowman, regardless of our station in life.

I was happy, humbled, and honored to be dubbed “The Prince of Muffins” by these Christian women. I humbly accepted offerings from them, whom I consider “Queens” of King!