Vainity Is All About The Empty Gas...Tank

I was off to a wedding reception a couple of weeks ago--a hundred miles each way-- when somewhere along the way, I realized: it was Saturday.  Now this may seem a rather silly realization, (especially given the reception invite in my purse), but for the past several weeks, I have been trying to make a point of filling my gas tank up every Saturday evening, so that come Sunday morning, I know all is well and good.  There have been times in my past where the excitement of the weekend activities are so distracting that I completely forgot to think about filling up my tank on a Saturday-- and then, being on empty, I need to put a few dollars in the tank just to get to church the next day.

Vanity is emptiness..... and in comparison to my Sunday worship, all my Saturday excitement really is small stuff.  And that's the point: no matter how busy my Saturday got, it really was leaving me with an empty spiritual glass....and an empty gas tank.

This time, as I had a hundred mile journey ahead of me, I looked down and realized that I only had a quarter tank of gas left-- not nearly enough gas to help get me there and back.  I couldn't fill up later, I would have to do it soon.  Google was leading the way, and so somewhere on a seemingly random exit in El Monte, I got off, turned into a gas station, and started to fill up my tank. 

I saw a family with backpacks walking around the gas station.  Three kids and a dad.  They didn't look too scruffy, but it was getting dark, and I began to wonder what was going on with them. As they got closer, I could hear what the dad was asking the other people at the gas station.  The dad was going around asking for money, looking for some cash to pay for the night's stay at the hotel next door. 

And all of a sudden, my nerves were tingling, and I knew .....  this was needed, and it was something in my power to help with.  I don't usually carry any cash, but earlier that day I had pulled out some cash by accidently hitting a button wrong at the check out at the grocery store.  Here was a chance to take a 'mistake' and create some good.  I handed the boy the money, and watched as this family walked over to the hotel, and started registering. 

We are told in the scriptures that we can ask for things.  We can ask for blessings for our families, our work, our homes, the very food we eat, and all sorts of things to be blessed.  As sons and daughters of Heavenly Father, we are divinely given that right.  However, it comes with a catch: we need to help the needy, the naked, visit the sick and afflicted, and impart of our substance with those who are in need of it--  whether this be a physical item, or an emotional lift.    To receive His Hands in our lives, means a willingness to be those hands if the need arises. 

In Alma 34: 28--29 we are cautioned: "...I say unto you, if ye do not any of these things, behold, your prayer is vain, and availeth you nothing, and ye are as hypocrites who do deny the faith.  Therefore, if ye do not remember to be charitable, ye are as dross..."

"But charity is the pure love of Christ, and it endureth forever; and whoso is found possessed of it at the last day, it shall be well with him." Moroni 7: 47

The pure love of Christ can work miracles-- inside and out.  Oftentimes what we see on the outside isn't the whole story.  I don't know the backstory of the family.  I only know that my Heavenly Father gave me a chance to be somewhere on a Saturday night where our paths could cross, and I was supplied with the means to help.

Then He stepped back to see what would happen.