God spoke to prophets and the prophets spoke to the people, and the people began to exercise faith in Jesus Christ, and by faith they began to “lay hold upon every good thing.” By praying to God and asking in the name of Jesus Christ for good things, having faith that they would receive, they did receive those good things.
If we have faith, then we must also have hope. And what should we hope for? That if we live righteously and have faith in Jesus Christ, then someday we will be able to return to our Heavenly Father and live with him because of the Atonement of Christ. But then Mormon tells us that we cannot have faith and hope if we are not meek and lowly in heart.
If we are proud and puffed up, our faith and hope is in vain or good for nothing. If we are meek and lowly in heart, and confess by the power of the Holy Ghost that Jesus is the Christ – if we have a testimony that Jesus is our savior because we have had a witness of truth from the Holy Ghost – then we must have charity. If we do not have charity, warns Mormon, then we are nothing.
Mormon said that “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 truth, beareth all things, believeth all things, hopeth all things, endureth all things.
“Wherefore, my beloved brethren, if ye have not charity, ye are nothing, for charity never faileth. Wherefore, cleave unto charity, which is the greatest of all, for all things must fail –
“But charity is the pure love of Christ, and it endureth forever; and whoso is found possessed of it at the last day, it shall be well with him.” (Moroni 7: 45-47).
So, what is charity? To have charity means that you have patience, that you are kind, that you do not envy others, that you are not prideful, that you do not put yourself ahead of everyone else, that you are slow to get angry, and that instead of striking back when someone hits you that you turn the other cheek. Having Charity means that you rejoice in truth, that you shun evil, that you are humble and submissive to your parents and your Heavenly Father, and that you have faith and hope. Charity is love, but it is more than that, it is the pure love of Christ. We are to love as Jesus loves.
Charity also means separating behavior from the individual, which allows us to love the sinner even as we hate the sin. If we have charity we can say, "I love you, you have value as an individual, but this particular behavior is a problem." Charity makes it easier to use "I messages" instead of "you messages." If we have charity we can be bullet proof as having compassion and understanding can protect us from taking their behavior personally, "That's just Sally being Sally."
President Thomas S. Monson has said, "I consider charity -- or the 'pure love of Christ' -- to be the opposite of criticism and judging. In speaking of charity, I do not . . . have in mind the relief of the suffering through the giving of our substance. That, of course, is necessary and proper . . . I have in mind the charity that manifests itself when we are tolerant of others and lenient toward their actions, the kind of charity that forgives, the kind of charity that is patient.
"I have in mind the charity that impels us to be sympathetic, compassionate, and merciful, not only in times of sickness and affliction and distress but also in times of weakness or error on the part of others. There is a serious need for the charity that gives attention to those who are unnoticed, hope to those who are discouraged, aid to those who are afflicted. True charity is love in action. The need for charity is everywhere.
"Needed is the charity which refuses to find satisfaction in hearing or in repeating the reports of misfortunes that come to others, unless by so doing, the unfortunate one may be benefited. The American educator and politician Horace Mann once said, 'To pity distress is but human; to relieve it is godlike.'"
President Monson also tells us that "Charity is having patience with someone who has let us down. It is resisting the impulse to become offended easily. It is accepting weaknesses and shortcoming. It is accepting people as they truly are. It is looking beyond physical appearances to attributes that will not dim through time. It is resisting the impulse to categorize others."
President Monson concludes, "In a hundred small ways, all of you wear the mantle of charity. Life is perfect for none of us. Rather than being judgmental and critical of each other, may we have the pure love of Christ for our fellow travelers in this journey through life. May we recognize that each one is doing [his or] her best to deal with the challenges which come [his or] her way, and may we strive to do our best to help out."
Because charity will never fail while everything else will, and because if we do not have charity then we do not have faith or hope, I think that in order for us to be watertight, we must have charity.
Mormon tells us that when we pray that we should pray to be filled with this love, and I add my voice to his and say that we should do this. It is never too early to start, and we should continue to pray that we may continue to be filled with charity, that we may be purified and that we may truly be like Jesus. And we must be careful to always have faith and hope, and to always pray and study the scriptures, so that we may never lose this charity once we have been filled with it.
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