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Wert thou to consider this world, and realize how fleeting are things that pertain unto it, thou wouldst choose to tread no path but the path of service to the Cause of thy Lord. None would have the power to deter thee from celebrating His praise, though all men should arise to oppose thee. Go thou straight on and persevere in His service.

Gleanings, Bahá'u'lláh, p.314

Think ye at all times of rendering some service to every member of the human race. Pay ye no heed to aversion and rejection, to disdain , hostility, injustice; act ye in the opposite way.

Selections from the Writings of 'Abdul'-Bahá, p.3

You must in this instance (that is, service to humanity) sacrifice your lives, and in sacrificing your lives celebrate happiness and beatitude.

Tablets of 'Abdu'l-Bahá, p.44

This is a real toughie - both to do and to talk about. Many are the times that we sacrifice our time, effort, resources to perform some service for someone, and we get back nothing, or even worse: a kick in the teeth (a.a. criticism). This is especially disappointing when this occurs within the Bahá'í community. I have several stories like this that I could tell from my own experience, as Im sure most Bahá'ís could do, about when weve given our all and no one says thank you or they criticize and find fault with what has been done. People leave the Faith because of this! But ...

I find this incredibly consoling! To me, it means that Im not serving for me, Im serving for God. So it doesnt matter if so-and-so didnt like whatever it was, or if nobody said, "Thanks!" Internalizing this has helped me greatly.

The other part of this toughie is *purity*of*motive*. I find that I really must think about why I'm doing whatever it is, and then not being satisfied with the results. If I've put my all into something and I got back "nothing", what was I expecting to get? If I expect gratitude, and I don't get it, then I'm going to be disappointed. But if I don't expect thanks, and I get some - what a wonderful surprise!