This past Sunday's lesson was Chp. 20, Love and Concern for All Our Father's Children. Sis. Tiffanie Huntley was so willing to be a guest teacher and did a wonderful job. She started the lesson by asking us all, "What does it mean to love your neighbor?" There were varied responses from being friendly and nice to the people who live close to you, to saying hello to people at the grocery store.
President Joseph Fielding Smith was probably one of the kindest men that ever lived. At the beginning of the chapter there are two sweet stories about how he showed kindness. The first is about a boy who was at a conference meeting and was asked to give up his seat right before the meeting was to start. Pres. Smith saw what happened and had the boy come up to the stand. He asked him what had happend, and then shared his own seat with him during the conference. The other story was about a missionary that was about to depart on his mission to eastern Canada. Pres. Smith asked him if he had a suitable coat to stay warm in. The missionary told him that he didn't. Pres. Smith took him across the street to the department store and bought him the warmest coat in stock.
Pres. Smith said, "I think if all men knew and understood who they are, and were aware of the divine source from whence they came, and of the infinite potential that is part of their inheritance, they would have feelings of kindness and kinship for each other that would change their whole way of living and bring peace on earth."
Sis. Huntley wanted to share a Mormon Message, but was unable to do so. Here is the link to that powerful message that teaches us we should care for all people, for we are all sons and daughters of God. The Civility Experiment
To go along with the video, President Smith also taught, "I believe it is our solemn duty to love one another, to believe in each other, to have faith in each other, that it is our duty to overlook the faults and the failings of each other, and not to magnify them in our own eyes nor before the eyes of the world."
Sis. Huntley asks us "Why is it so difficult to have Christ like love for one another?" It is difficult because we must live among those who do not share our beliefs and values and covenant obligations. In His great Intercessory Prayer, offered just before His Crucifixion, Jesus prayed for His followers: “I have given them thy word; and the world hath hated them, because they are not of the world, even as I am not of the world” (John 17:14). Then, to the Father He pleaded, “I pray not that thou shouldest take them out of the world, but that thou shouldest keep them from the evil” (verse 15).
There is a wonderful story in the manual about a horse that belonged to the Smith family while Pres. Smith was growing up. The horse would somehow turn the water tap on and leave it running all night long. Pres. Smith and his father tried everything in their power to keep her tied up, but it seemed the horse was almost smarter than they. Pres. Smith said of the horse, "It doesn't mean that she was bad, because she wasn't. Father wasn't about to sell or trade her, because she had so many other good qualities that made up for this one little fault." That same horse was so reliable and dependable at pulling the buggy. She was the horse that always took Pres. Smith and his mother on important house calls, many times in the middle of the night, because Pres. Smith's mother was a midwife. Often while Pres. Smith's mother was attending to the birth of a baby, he would wait in the buggy for his mother with the horse keeping him company. He said, "This experience with this horse was very good for me, because early in life I had to learn to love and appreciate her for herself. She was a wonderful horse with only a couple of bad habits. People are a lot the same way. None of us is perfect; yet each of us is trying to become perfect, even as our Father in heaven. We need to appreciate and love people for themselves."
Sis. Huntley did a wonderful job at reminding us that the second great commandment is to love our neighbors as ourselves. We need to remember that not only is it the nice thing to do when we are kind to one another, but it is also a commandment. We are all God's children, which means we are all brothers and sisters. To become more like our Savior we should treat others the way He would.
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