Altriusm

This video inspired me. In my social psychology class, we learned about prosocial behavior and altruism. We watched a video about this father and son, of course there were teary eyes in the room. The father went through so much hard work to show love and care for his handicapped son. The son's joy was running marathons with his father. Of course, he wasn't running, his father's body was doing the work. However, the son's heart and love was what motivated the father to do the work.

This father is a great example of true love and service. He dedicates himself to training to run a marathon or trialathon just to see the smile or laughter on his son's face. What if we had this same level of true love and service in our lifes for others? What if we knew what made our loved one's happy and sacrificed everything just so they could experience joy. I have realized how selfish we are. How many times do you think about yourself during the day? How many times do you complain about your relationship status, lack of money, nice car, job, friends, or whatever? I hear complaining about our own selfish wants all the time. I am not a exception, I can do much better, and it is hard to be not selfish. We are taught as a young child how to be selfish. We are taught when we are hungry, to call out for food and our parents will feed us. We are taught when we are tired, they will get out of bed and rock us to sleep. This instant gratification can carry with us until we are older. We need to have happiness instantly given to us. What if we didn't worry about our happiness as much? We realized that giving our time to others is what others needed, and sacrificing our wants was more important than gratifying our own needs.

Christ is the ultimate example of altruism. His life was service all day. Not once did he say,"I need a break, so I won't go teach the people, I will just sit here and eat my ice cream by myself".Yes this is a exaggeration, but think about it. Especially during this month of December. We celebrate Christ's birth, we try to emulate his love and service in this month. Of course, that is the true meaning of Christmas, it isn't about receiving gifts, but giving meaningful gifts and service to others. This is what Christ did daily. This is what this father did for his son. He gave service, time, dedication. Why would he dedicate so much time? Not for personal glory or attention, but to simply see his son experience joy.

This is my question for you. What do you do to help others feel joy? Do you go out of your way to call out a friend when you know they had a bad day? Or do you simply say, "they probably don't need a friend, they will get over it themselves". What if the world was filled with people who only thought about themselves all day, everyday. It would be miserable. No happiness. No service. You would walk around hearing, "me, me, me". No problems would be solved. Just think about it, and then try to show meaningful service to others. Not only during December, but during all year, everyday, every hour. I often see people perform marvelous service during the Holiday Season. It is wonderful. But what if was carried all year instead of December?