"Do you feel the Lord's love in your life? “-Bonnie D. Parkin by Marina Bair

Mormon explains that through our faith in Christ we can have hope. He also says that, “Ye shall have hope through the atonement of Christ and the power of his resurrection, to be raised unto life eternal and this because of your faith in him according to the promise.”(1) And then he goes on to say, “Behold I say unto you that he cannot have faith and hope, save he shall be meek, and lowly of heart. If so, his faith and hope is vain, for none is acceptable before God, save the meek and lowly in heart; and if a man be meek and lowly in heart, and confesses by the power of the Holy Ghost that Jesus is the Christ, he must needs have charity; for if he have not charity he is nothing; wherefore he must needs have charity.” (2) According to Mormon faith and hope are the foundations of charity. Now that we have the foundation I want to go into more detail about what charity is.

Charity is mostly described as the pure love of Christ, which it is, however I wanted to look more into what else it is. And charity suffereth long, and is kind, and envieth not, and is not puffed up, seeketh not her own, is not easily provoked, thinketh no evil, and rejoiceth not in iniquity but rejoiceth in the truth, beareth all things, believeth all things, hopeth all things, endureth all things. (Moroni 7:45) In this scripture Mormon list several characteristics of charity including it being the “pure love of Christ” (Moroni 7:46). There is another scripture that is similar to this one, it is found in Mosiah 3:19, it reads, “For the natural man is an enemy to God, and has been from the fall of Adam, and will be, forever and ever, unless he yields to the enticings of the Holy Spirit, and putteth off the natural man and becometh a saint through the atonement of Christ the Lord, and becometh as a child, submissive, meek, humble, patient, full of love, willing to submit to all things which the Lord seeth fit to inflict upon him, even as a child doth submit to his father.” Through this scripture one can see that a child has characteristics of charity. Children are submissive which means more then being obedient. Submissive means to be, “Inclined or ready to submit; acknowledging one's inferiority,” (3) or being humble. And they are “willing to submit to all things which the Lord seeth fit to inflict upon him,”(4) or another word would be long suffering. There is a story that Pres. Monson shares about a child that shows the love and complete trust that is mentioned in Mosiah. He said, “Last summer I received a letter from a woman who has emerged from a long period of Church inactivity. She is ever so anxious for her husband, who as yet is not a member of the Church, to share the joy she now feels. She wrote of a trip which she, her husband, and their three sons made from the family home to Grandmother’s home in Idaho. While driving through Salt Lake City, they were attracted by the message which appeared on a billboard. The message invited them to visit Temple Square. Bob, the nonmember husband, made the suggestion that a visit would be pleasant. The family entered the visitors’ center, and Father took two sons up a ramp that one called “'the ramp to heaven.'” Mother and three-year-old Tyler were a bit behind the others, they having paused to appreciate the beautiful paintings which adorned the walls. As they walked toward the magnificent sculpture of Thorvaldsen’s Christus, tiny Tyler bolted from his mother and ran to the base of the Christus, while exclaiming, “'It’s Jesus! It’s Jesus!'” As Mother attempted to restrain her son, Tyler looked back toward her and his father and said, “'Don’t worry. He likes children.'” After departing the center and again making their way along the freeway toward Grandmother’s, Tyler moved to the front seat next to his father. Dad asked him what he liked best about their adventure on Temple Square. Tyler smiled up at him and said, “'Jesus.'”

“'How do you know that Jesus likes you, Tyler?'” Tyler, with a most serious expression on his face, looked up at his father’s eyes and answered, “'Dad, didn’t you see his face?'” Nothing else needed to be said.”(5) Children are so innocent and their souls are so radiant that you almost feel their trust in the Lord.

What we need to ask ourselves now is, “How do we gain these characteristics?” The characteristics that I want to focus on are long suffering, beareth all things, meekness, patience, and love. Alma 1:25 reads, “Now this was a great trial to those that did stand fast in the faith; nevertheless, they were steadfast and immovable in keeping the commandments of God, and they bore with patience the persecution which was heaped upon them.” This is long suffering. They suffered, but they bore it and kept their trust in the Lord. Mormon said that beareth all things is a quality of charity. Whenever I read that scripture I thought that it meant patience, however after looking at several meaning of the word bearing I have found it to have a greater meaning. Bearing means, “to hold or remain firm under, to sustain, to bear witness or testimony, to possess as a quality or characteristic, to have as an identification.”(6) With these definitions bearing means to be steadfast, sustain our leaders, and bear our testimonies. But what I thought was interesting was that when we live the gospel we show characteristics of Jesus Christ and that every Sunday we take his name upon us. Or in other words we are identified by his name. So when Mormon said to beareth all things, that phrase encompasses many things. The story that comes to mind is that of Joseph Smith and the night that he was tarred and feathered. That night he was in a lot of physical pain, but also emotional, because of the loss of one of his children. The next day when he was preaching, he saw the men who caused that pain and instead of standing up and accusing them for what they did, he bear his testimony of the gospel them. He exemplified long suffering and beareth all things. A more recent example would be those who live in California. We are undergoing persecution and resentment, because we stood up for proposition 8. But we will not back down from what we know is right and true. Will we not fight back with harsh words or defacing of property, will stand with the law and put our trust in the Lord. King Benjamin said that, “If ye have come to a knowledge of the goodness of God, and his matchless power, and his wisdom, and his patience, and his long-suffering towards the children of men; and also, the atonement which has been prepared from the foundation of the world, that thereby salvation might come to him that should put his trust in the Lord, and should be diligent in keeping his commandments, and continue in the faith even unto the end of his life.” (Mosiah 4:6 emphasis added)

The next virtue of charity I want to speak on is on being meek. Meekness is one virtue that I don't think many people know what it is. In German the word for meekness is “sanftmut” which means “soft courage”. Meekness, I believe, is a combination of humility and patience. When you have humility and patience and people are persecuting you, you will not contend with them you will be patient, but will not back down from what you believe it true. The patience I am speaking of here is not simply keeping your mouth closed and weathering arguments, but that you are loving and patient. It is important that your attitude is in the right place otherwise it is just a heated silence on your part and not the loving patience that the Lord has for all of us. The last quality that I wanted to talk about is love. The love of God is the most powerful thing that I have ever felt. And I feel it the most when I am learning about the plan of happiness and when I am around little children. Those are the times I feel the Lord's love for all of his children and I want to share it with others. I love the hymn, “Our Savior's Love” because it illustrates how strong and powerful the love of God is. The first verse says, “Our Savior's love, shines like the sun in perfect light, as from above it breaks thru clouds of strife. Lighting our way, it leads us back into his sight, where we may stay to share eternal life.” (7)

Charity like most things in the gospel is a life long pursuit. We may feel charity very strongly at times, but without constant effort and the help of the Lord we can lose it. Mormon said that we should, “Pray unto the Father with all the energy of heart, that ye may be filled with this love.” (8) To gain these qualities, to gain charity, is hard and takes time, but if we call upon the Lord and do our part, he will help us become as little children. And as the hymn says the love of God breaks clouds of strife and shows us the way back to him. And in Mosiah 2:4 it says that if we keep the commandments will we, “be filled with love towards God and all men.” May we feel his love and share it with others is my prayer in the name of Jesus Christ amen.

Works Cited:

1. Moroni 7:41

2. Moroni 7:43-44 (cross reference of Alma 7:24)

3. Dictionary.com

4. Mosiah 3:19

5. Thomas S. Monson, “' A Little Child Shall Lead Them'”, Ensign, May 1990, 53

6. Dictionary.com

7. Hymn # 113

8. Moroni 7:48