No Good Effort Is Ever Wasted

Sometimes we may feel like we have failed or not done something as well as we would have like too. For example you are baking some brownies with a friend but you leave them in the oven too long because you forgot about them, and they got burnt. You may get a feeling like you have failed and the brownies are ruined. True the brownies probably won't taste good. Another example you are trying to help someone understand a principle. You explain it to them in the simplest form you can but they still don't get it. There is nothing more you can do to help them understand it. You may have felt like you could have done better or like you failed that person. We often give out efforts to help someone or to help ourselves but sometimes they are not enough. Remember no good effort is ever wasted. Going back to the brownie story. K so you burnt they brownies, bummer, tough luck, but make something out of it. Cut a piece out of the cow-pie and through it at your friend, get a laugh out of it. Your good intentions of making some delicious desserts failed but your effort in trying to have a good time with a friend wasn't wasted. You got a laugh out of the situation and probably strengthened the relationship with your friend. Now going back to the other scenario. The person you were trying to help didn't understand the principle when you were explaining it to them. You did your best and that's all you can do. You may not ever find out but later that person may talk to someone else or read something from their textbook. Then they will get it. If you weren't to have tried to help them they wouldn't have been able to get the principle. They understood the principle because of how you explained it and because of their second effort in learning the principle. Again the good effort wasn't wasted, plus you may have helped yourself because you probably understand the principle a little better now. In both of these situations the initial effort was thought to be a waste but in reality they weren't. This kind of thing happens all the time, especially in missionary work. We think that we have failed because we weren't able to get something done our first try. But really we learn from them, whether it be to set an alarm so we don't forget the brownies, we better understand a principle and can now explain it a little better or, when to use the scriptures. Just remember that no good effort will ever be wasted.

Elder Morrison