Hales - Welfare Principles to Guide Our Lives: An Eternal Plan for the Welfare of Men's Souls - April 1986

Elder Hales speaks about God's plan for the welfare of the poor and needy.  He shares seven principles and then teaches us some key points about what each one mean.

• The following seven welfare principles are essential to our happiness and spiritual development:
  
  • 1. The welfare plan is an integral part of the plan of salvation.
    
  • 2. The scriptures provide the spiritual framework for the welfare plan.
    
  • 3. The welfare plan builds faith in the Lord Jesus Christ.
    
  • 4. By living welfare principles, we can develop self-reliance.
    
  • 5. The welfare plan builds love and compassion for our fellowmen.
    
  • 6. The welfare plan sanctifies both the giver and the receiver.
    
  • 7. The welfare plan builds a Zion people.
    

Let's look into each principle and what Elder Hales teaches about each one.

1. The welfare plan is an integral part of the plan of salvation.

• Some have become confused about what “welfare” really means. Some approaches to welfare in the world foster idleness, give subsidies with no labor required, create a burden of debt, and promote greediness—an appetite for things of this world rather than the riches of eternity.
  
• The Lord rejects such welfare programs. His plan meets the needs of all, however abundant or modest their circumstances. His purpose is to provide for our eternal welfare. “The prime duty of help to the poor [in body and spirit] … is not [solely] to bring temporal relief to their needs, but salvation to their souls.”
  

2. The scriptures provide the spiritual framework for the welfare plan.

• Turn to the Book of Mormon index and glance at the references listed under the word welfare. You will see, and the Spirit will testify, that the Lord’s welfare plan focuses first and foremost on the eternal well-being of His children. Take special note of the repeated reference to the welfare of souls. This implies much more than just food, clothing, and shelter for temporal needs.
  

3. The welfare plan builds faith in the Lord Jesus Christ.

• Temporal challenges humble us and become spiritual opportunities. Temporal challenges bring us to our knees in prayer, seeking heavenly guidance and assistance from the Lord as well as from our brothers and sisters.
  
• As we persist in putting welfare principles to work, adding our strengths and resources to those possessed by others, we can overcome our adversities. Overcoming temporal obstacles demonstrates to us that nothing is too hard for the Lord. Our faith in Christ is confirmed.
  

4. By living welfare principles, we can develop self-reliance.

• Provident living requires us to develop proper attitudes—a willingness to forego luxuries, to avoid excess, and to fully use what we have—learning to live within our means.
  
• The Lord’s real storehouse is indeed in the homes and the hearts of His people. As the members of the Church follow the counsel to become self-reliant, they represent an immense pool of resources, knowledge, skills, and charity available to help one another. This storehouse, the Lord has said, is “for the poor of my people, … to advance the cause, which ye have espoused, to the salvation of man, and to the glory of your Father who is in heaven.”
  

5. The welfare plan builds love and compassion for our fellowmen.

• As we live the principles of welfare, love and compassion will abound in our homes, in our worship, and in our service to others.
  
• It is hypocritical to talk of compassion to others while we are rude or abusive within our own families. Let us put our own homes in order, seeing that the spiritual and emotional needs of our families are met.
  

6. The welfare plan sanctifies both the giver and the receiver.

• We are all both givers and receivers. President Marion G. Romney has said, “There is an interdependence between those who have and those who have not. The process of giving exalts the poor and humbles the rich. In the process, both are sanctified.”
  

7. The welfare plan builds a Zion people.

• We need to understand that as much virtue can be gained in progressing toward Zion as in dwelling there. It is a process as well as a destination. We approach or withdraw from Zion through the manner in which we conduct our daily dealings, how we live within our families, whether we pay an honest tithe and generous fast offering, how we seize opportunities to serve and do so diligently. Many are perfected upon the road to Zion who will never see the city in mortality.
  

Elder Hales share his testimony of the ministering of angels that God sends to us to help us in our times of need.  But reminds us that we have an obligation to help others and to do all we can.

• I bear you my testimony that we live in a dispensation of time when there have been ministering angels. The angel Moroni was one such heavenly messenger. His visit was essential to the restoration of the gospel through the Prophet Joseph Smith. But, Joseph Fielding Smith taught us that “it is contrary to the law of God for the heavens to be opened and messengers to come to do anything for man that man can do for himself.”

He closes by sharing with us what he prays about for each one of us.

• That you and I might realize that we have the power and responsibility to help those in need, as ministering angels for the Lord Jesus Christ, that we will be loved because we love, be consoled because we are compassionate, be forgiven because we have demonstrated the capacity to forgive, is my prayer.
  

The principles of welfare have been taught for over 100 years in the church.  Elder Hales makes the principles easy to understand.  God's plan is for each of us to be treated with dignity and to be supported in our efforts to get back on our feet after being knocked down.  The key point is that God expects each of us to help but also expects the person in need to help themselves.  We need to remember that we cannot reach the souls of men if they are more concerned with their daily needs instead of their spiritual needs.  I hope we can all try to use these principles to help those in need so they, with our help, can focus on the spiritual needs in their life.