This is another of Thomas S. Monson's (prophet and president of the LDS/Mormon church) Christmas favorites. I'd never read it before this year.It's a story about a good man who rigorously builds his good name and reputation by choosing carefully which charitable contributions will be most prominently noticed and by ensuring public recognition for every good deed he does. What will his reward in heaven be? He finds out.
I actually found this story to be very thought provoking. It IS difficult to do good with no thought of thanks or recognition. Not that recognition or thanks is explicitly sought by most of us, I guess, just that part of the fun of giving is anticipating the joy of the recipient and, as this story points out, our Christian charity should not be motivated by thoughts of recognition or gratitude, but by true love of our fellowman and of God. An oft-stated message, to be sure, but no less true for all of that. It's an irony that these cliched messages that are so easy to gloss over or even reject as "trite" are so prominently quoted and re-quoted because they're TRUE. And we each figure that out from time to time as we are surprised by their actually applying to OUR lives! How about that!
Anyway, I really loved this little story. It was a quick read (and it's free online!) and I think I'll read it every year at Christmas, along with Luke 2 and Dickens' "Christmas Carol".
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