Charity: The Perfection we are all striving towards

·        I was called to serve in the Japan Fukuoka Mission and entered the Missionary Training Center early last year. Many of you who have been following me already know that my mission experience has been…interesting. I came home twice on two separate occasions. The first time I got very ill in the MTC and came home. After my health was sorted out, I was out for almost 6 more months when I was hit by a car and ended up with a broken foot and was sent home again. It took almost 6 months for my foot to heal enough to allow me to return to Japan.

·        While I was out on my mission, I remember being challenged by my leaders to frequently study the attributes of Christ. In the missionary manual , “Preach my Gospel” there is a chapter titled “How to I develop Christ-like attributes?” At the back of this chapter there is an assessment you can take that allows you to rate yourself on several different qualities. I took this assessment several times while on my mission and learned a lot about areas on which I could improve or areas where I personally just wanted to be better or learn more about. Luckily, I was asked to speak on one of those for my homecoming talk; that topic is Charity. 

·        What is charity? How would you define charity? Moroni 7:47 reads, “Charity is the pure love of Christ.” Now let’s go a little deeper into specific sub-qualities of a person who exhibits charity. Moroni 7:45 reads, “And charity suffereth long, and is kind, and enveith 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, endureth all things.” 

·        On my mission I really developed a sincere love for the scriptures. I looked forward to personal study each day and would read any extra opportunity I could find at some times. From that love of scripture study stemmed love of dissecting some of the verses I would come across. I remember coming across this very verse of scripture and doing that. 

·        “Charity suffereth long” could mean that a person who has charity also has patience and diligence. They endure and keep showing love and charity even when trials and hardships come.

·        “Charity enveith not” is the same as not coveting. Someone who has charity also has an attitude of gratitude; a love and appreciation for what you do have.

·         “Charity is not puffed up and seeketh not her own”. I took this to mean that someone who has charity cares a lot about serving others. They look for opportunities to serve others and truly care about them. They do not boast in themselves but attribute everything they have to their loving Heavenly Father. They are self-less.  

·        “Charity is not easily provoked and thinketh no evil”. This could again mean having patience. Also in having patience, controlling our thoughts, even when we are angry at something or someone. One is quick to forgive and turn the other cheek.

·         Finally, “Charity rejoiceth in the truth”. As I read this section, I asked myself, do I keep myself receptable to the Spirit so I can “rejoice in the truth”? Perhaps rejoicing in the truth means those moments when we feel our souls truly connecting with the gospel of Jesus Christ. Or a time when we really feel the love of God, the Spirit in our lives. 

·         So in taking a deeper look at the scripture Moroni 7:45, we discover that Charity practically encompasses all of the Christ-like attributes such as patience, diligence, brotherly kindness, virtue, and more.  Again, “Charity is the pure love of Christ”. Purity suggests perfection and we are all working towards perfection in this life. This makes developing Charity a lifelong process. It is not something we can expect to develop overnight. 

·        So how can we develop Charity and in what areas of our lives can we focus on developing it? For starters there are two ways we can develop charity. The first is to follow the commandments of God. The second is to study the life of our most perfect example Jesus Christ. By studying His life and His teachings, we can know who to emulate and how we should do it.  Now the areas of our lives we can focus on applying charity and love is for God, others, and ourselves.

·        First is developing love for God. Think to yourself about how you personally show your love for God.  We can show our love in many ways, but I’d like to mention two. 

·        We can show our love by listening to and heeding the promptings that He gives to us. When I was in my second area my companion and I were biking past a grocery store and we saw this young woman coming up the sidewalk and I had a prompting to stop her. I dismissed it at first because there were a few people trying to park their bikes close to where she was walking and the sidewalk became really narrow there, but I shoved that aside and talked to her. It turned out to be a very pleasant experience. She was such an optimistic and happy person. My companion and I had the opportunity to talk about her image of God, who we were, what we were doing in Japan and were even able to give her a “Book of Mormon”. Afterwards I recall feeling that God was pleased with me because I had listened and heeded His prompting. I know that this can be true for you too. If you listen to and heed promptings and feelings you get, you will be blessed. 

·        We can also show our love for God by keeping His commandments. We have all read it in the Bible, “If ye love me, keep my commandments.” Loving God is also actually connected to the second area of our lives where we can apply charity. That is in showing our love for others.  John 13: 34 reads, “A new commandment I give unto you, That ye love one another; as I have loved you, that ye also love one another.” As I share two more stories from my mission, I ask that you think to yourself about how actively involved you are in showing love to others. 

·        The first story was when I was a recipient of Charity and love. After the car accident I was still in Japan for about 2 weeks getting lots of things figured out. My companion was Sister Nelson at the time. During those tough weeks, she was the perfect example to me of a charitable and loving companion. She was quick to serve and help and always had a smile on her face. Even on the days when I was sad or even did not want to be served, she was always there. My experience with her left me with a determination to want to be better and to be as charitable as possible with my future companions regardless of the situation or the struggles that I would come to face.

·        The second was after I returned to Japan. My companion Sister Wilson and I were whitewashing an area. (Whitewashing means that you and your companion are both new to the area.)We had nothing to go off of; no investigators or any other people to visit. We spent a lot of time tracting and finding. One day we were asked by our district leader to go visit a less- active who lived pretty far away. We scheduled it for the coming week and the morning came. It was POURING outside, but we continued on. Fourteen miles and two hours later, we arrived soaking wet to this lady’s house. As she came out of the house I remember the smile she had and how happy she was to see missionaries visiting her. She lived so far away that she said she rarely got visitors. It left me feeling like I was walking on sunshine. From that I learned that we can simply have charity for others by giving of our time. Now there are lots of ways we can show charity for others, such as giving time, talents, energy, words of comfort, and more. But when you pay attention to how people respond to love and service that you give, sometimes their happiness radiates out from their souls gracing your heart with love and light.  

·        On another note, I remember a General Conference talk a while back by Elder Russell M. Ballard where we were challenged to ask Heavenly Father in morning prayer, if we could have a service or missionary opportunity. When we do this we are not only showing Charity and love for God, but we are also allowing ourselves to have an opportunity to show love and charity for others as well. I remember Sister Wilson and I made a goal to pray for a service opportunity every day. We then would actively look for them throughout the day.  It seemed that more opportunities came whenever we actively prayed and looked for them. 

·        The third and final area of our lives that we can apply Charity is to have love for ourselves. As a missionary I had to learn that very quickly. It is so easy to be hard on yourself because you have expectations placed on you from several sources but it is still so important to love yourself.  

·        God wants you to love yourself. He created you and loves you beyond all comprehension. He knows you are not perfect, so YOU need to accept that too. If you expect perfection overnight, you are expecting too much of yourself.

·        My lovely trainer Sister Buhler taught me that “you choose”. More specifically “You choose to be happy.” It is your choice. There are no factors, your situation does not matter, you can choose to love yourself and your life no matter what. That in itself is also a process. A tough one, but not impossible. Work hard to notice the little steps, the little degrees of change, the small improvements you are making. God certainly notices them and He wants you to step back and see them the way he does. He wants you to see yourself the way He sees you. 

·        I would like to close with the scripture Moroni 7:46. “Wherefore, my beloved brethren, if ye have not charity, ye are nothing, for charity never faileth.” As I was preparing for this talk, I thought about that statement, “for charity never faileth” Why does it not fail? Why is Charity possibly the most important goal for us to strive towards? Why? It is because it is literally what allowed our Savior Jesus Christ to complete the Atonement. It is what enabled Him to suffer for all of our sins, pains, and weaknesses so we could have an opportunity to gain eternal life.  Again, we must not beat ourselves up if we cannot develop perfect charity by tomorrow, because it was charity is perfect love, and that  is what enabled the Atonement. Yet, on a daily basis,  we can still work towards developing a love that can come close to what was shown to us through the Atonement of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ.  I know that this is true. I say these things in the name of Jesus Christ amen.