In the book ‘Memorable Stories and Parables by Boyd K. Packer”, he wrote:
“Many years ago my parents lived in a very modest home in the northern end of the state of Utah. One morning, my mother answered a knock at the door and was confronted by a large, frightening-looking man, who asked for money.
She said, “We have no money.” There were in the home innumerable children but very little money. He pressed his demands insisting that she give him some money, finally saying, “I am hungry; I would like to get something to eat.”
“Well,” she said, “if that is the case then I can help you.” So she hurried to the kitchen and fixed him lunch. And I am sure it was the most modest of provisions. She could tell as she gave him the lunch at the door that he was not pleased, but with little resistance he took the lunch and left.
She watched him as he went down the lane through the gate and started up the road. He looked back, but he did not see her standing inside the door, and as he passed the property line, he took the lunch and threw it over the fence into the brush.
Now my mother is a little Danish women, and she was angered; angered at the ingratitude. In that house there was nothing to waste, and she was angered that he was so ungrateful.
The incident was forgotten until a week or two later; she answered another knock at the door. There stood a tall, raw-boned teenage boy who asked about the same question in essentially the same words; we are hungry. Could you give us some money; could you give us some food?”
But somehow the image of the first man appeared in her mind and she said, “No,” excusing herself; “I am sorry. I am busy; I cannot help you today. I just cannot help you.” What she meant was, “I won’t. I won’t. I won’t be taken in again.”
Well, the young man turned without protest and walked out the gate, and she stood looking after him. It wasn’t until he passed through the gate that she noticed the wagon, the father and mother and the other youngsters, and as the boy swung his long legs into the wagon he looked back rather poignantly; the father shook the reins and the wagon went on down the road. She hesitated just long enough so that she could not call them back.
From that experience she drew a moral by which she has lived and which she has imparted to her children, and though that was, I suppose, nearly fifty years ago, there has always been just a tiny bit of pain as she recalled the incident with this: moral; “Never fail to give that which you have to someone in need.”
I stress to you young brothers and sisters in the Church your obligation to give that which you possess to any who may be in need. I recognize that admittedly your material substance is meager compared to the needs of the world. I urge you to resolve with me that never so long as we live would anyone be hungry, spiritually or physically, that we could aid and assist.~From
The choice of life is not between fame and fortune,
nor between wealth and poverty,
but between good and evil.
‘Memorable Stories and Parables by Boyd K. Packer” Bookcraft 1997, p. 45-47
(Posts with a preamble asterisk * are for a more general audience, and not specific to teachings of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.)
