“I Give Not Because I Have Not but if I Had I Would Give”

Bryan Richards

Dallin H. Oaks

"Paul described the same principle in his second letter to the Corinthians, in which he said, 'If there be first a willing mind, it is accepted according to that a man hath, and not according to that he hath not' (2 Corinthians 8:12). What a contrast between these examples and those of the priest and the Levite, who looked on the wounded man but 'passed by on the other side of the way; for they desired in their hearts that it might not be known that they had seen him' (JST Luke 10:33).
"President Harold B. Lee relied on the above scriptures on the desire to give when he defined another example of rewards for righteous desires :

'(Women) who have been denied the blessings of wifehood or motherhood in this life--who say in their heart, if I could have done, I would have done, or I would give if I had, but I cannot, for I have not--the Lord will bless you as though you had done, and the world to come will compensate for those who desire in their hearts the righteous blessings that they were not able to have because of no fault of their own.' (Ye Are the Light of the World (Salt Lake City: Deseret Book Co., 1974), p. 292.)" (Pure in Heart, p. 61)

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