LOVE

In May it was my turn to prepare the Stake Relief Society Presidency message.  This is the message I gave.

My three year old granddaughter, in her 3 year old language, sang me a song the other day.  I wish I could remember the way she said some of the words.  It was priceless:

                                As I have loved you

                        Love one another

                        This new commandment

                        Love one another

                        By this shall men know

                        Ye are my disciples.

                        If ye have love

                        One to another.

            This is my message to you this month.  Jesus taught,  “A new commandment I give unto you, that ye love one another; as I have loved you, that ye also love one another”   (John 13:34).  Love is the miracle in all of our lives.  It can heal souls.  It can teach the gospel. We speak kindly and are gentle because of love. Love enlightens the understanding.  It’s what causes us to be patient and obedient and to make sacrifices.  Love saves souls.  It can accomplish all things.  Pres. Monson said in the Oct. 1996 Ensign, “Love is the catalyst that causes change. Love is the balm that brings healing to the soul.”

            So what does it really mean to have love “one to another”?  I think that means we are serving one another.  We notice those who are alone in our Sunday meetings and either invite them to sit with us or we sit with them.  I think it means that when we are outside of our apartments, we talk to those we pass on the sidewalks.  We invite our neighbors over for a Sunday evening treat.  It means we may have to get out of our comfort zone to reach out to others.  It means we have to stop worrying about ourselves and start worrying about those that are less fortunate than we are. It means we treat others the way that we want to be treated.

            In the same talk mentioned previously, President Monson also said “Tears came to my eyes when I read of a young boy who noticed a vagrant asleep on a sidewalk and who then went to his own bedroom, retrieved his pillow, and placed it beneath the head of that one whom he knew not. Perhaps there came from the past these welcome words: : ‘Inasmuch as ye have done it unto one of the least of these my brethren, ye have done it unto me’  (Matt. 25:40).”  This is what love is.

            May you  love   your families.  May you  love   your roommates.  May you find in your heart the  love   you need to love those that are hard to  love.  May you  love   those that you don’t even know.  May you have  love   one for another as Jesus loves you.