Love One Another

I have been thinking a lot about God's commandment for us to love one another and about the necessity of having charity and expressing that in our interactions with others. We often talk about how to become like God we need to learn to love like He loves. But this week I have thought specifically about how our having pure love, charity, really blesses those around us, far beyond acts of service that are motivated by that love. This quotation from Anne of Green Gables motivated much of these thoughts.

Marilla is talking to Anne about how she has noticed that Anne did not say her prayers the night before. Anne tells Marilla that she has chosen to not pray because she was taught that God made her hair red on purpose.

Marilla recognizes that Anne is "a girl who knew and cared nothing about God's love, since she had never had it translated to her through the medium of human love."

Later in the book Anne expresses that she feels gratitude for the beauties around her, she shows love for the people in her life and she also expresses how easy it us for her to pray. It doesn't really state it this way, but I think Anne has learned what love feels like and she so she is able to easily express it to others, and to God.

So back to the purpose of charity. I think that one reason that we are commanded to love others is that as others feel our love, they better understand God's love, because our love truly is rooted in God's love for his children. As we show pure love for others, we can help them come to know Jesus Christ and HEavenly Father. 

I Did It

Yesterday was Fathers' Day. In the week leading up to this Sunday, Brian and I talked a lot about the importance of fathers, but also, on this Sabbath Day, remembering our Heavenly Father and his abundant gifts. He invited ward members to find ways to honor our Heavenly Father on this special day.

At church, in prayers, I heard more than ever before a gratitude that we know that God is our father and that we are His spirit children. It was said several times throughout the day, and I was grateful for this reminder.

After the sacrament the Primary children sang a couple of Fathers' Day songs. They are simple, common songs, but it was wonderful to hear how well the primary children sang them. As they finished and the first children started to return to their seats, a little Sunbeam standing right in front said, "Daddy, I did it!" I don't know if she was nervous to go sing in front of the congregation or not, but it was easy to see that she felt the joy of this success, and it was so cute to see her eagerness to share this success with her daddy.

I thought about the Savior, who at the very en of his life pronounced, "It is finished." (John 19:30), confirming that He had completed all that the Father had asked Him to do.  I thought about how really a similar experience is something I long for. I look forward to the time I return to my Father in Heaven. I hope to bow before him and to be able to say, "I did it. I did my very best. I fulfilled the work you needed me to do." What a joyful experience that will be!

And then in Relief Society I read this quotation from the talk we were discussing with new eyes. 

“When you … see our Father,” Brigham Young described, “you will see a being with whom you have long been acquainted, and he will receive you into his arms, and you will be ready to fall into his embrace and kiss him.” (Am I a child of God? by Elder Brian K. Taylor)