Big beautiful bouquet of roses. Check. Hearts pasted on the fridge courtesy of our 8 year old. Check. A box of chocolates that I shouldn’t sample but will partake of nevertheless. Check, . Love is apparent in our home and I pray that it is in yours too. Hopefully, love is apparent each day of the year in all of our lives. Perhaps, not in so grandiose a fashion as on Valentine’s Day but apparent nonetheless.
Valentine’s Day is a day to celebrate love. True and enduring love should be celebrated. It should be honored. Such a love should be immortalized in poetry and song. This well-known poem by Elizabeth Barret Browning comes to mind when we contemplate this thing called Love:
How do I love thee? Let me count the ways.
I love thee to the depth and breadth and height
My soul can reach, when feeling out of sight
For the ends of Being and ideal Grace.
I love thee to the level of everyday’s
Most quiet need, by sun and candle-light.
I love thee freely, as men strive for Right;
I love thee purely, as they turn from Praise.
I love thee with a passion put to use
In my old griefs, and with my childhood’s faith.
I love thee with a love I seemed to lose
With my lost saints, — I love thee with the breath,
Smiles, tears, of all my life! — and, if God choose,
I shall but love thee better after death.
As we reflect on the blessings of love in our lives today, let us also take a minute to remember the love of our Savior and Redeemer, Jesus Christ. Members of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (also known as Mormons)refer to this love as Charity or the pure love of Christ. “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 7:47)
Charity is the highest, strongest, and the most noblest form of love. It is the love that our Redeemer has for each of us. This pure love of Christ is the love that he wants us to have for one another. “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).
Those of us who call ourselves disciples of Christ, whether we are of the Mormon faith, or of another, have promised to be more Christlike in our actions and thoughts. In short, we’ve promised to live a life of Charity towards all mankind. What are the characteristics of Charity? The Apostle Paul describes several elements of charity;
Though I speak with the tongues of men and of angels, and have not charity, I am become as sounding brass, or a tinkling cymbal.
And though I have the gift of prophecy, and understand all mysteries, and all knowledge; and though I have all faith, so that I could remove mountains, and have not charity, I am nothing.
And though I bestow all my goods to feed the poor, and though I give my body to be burned, and have not charity, it profiteth me nothing.
Charity suffereth long, and is kind; charity envieth not; charity vaunteth not itself, is not puffed up,
Doth not behave itself unseemly, seeketh not her own, is not easily provoked, thinketh no evil;
Rejoiceth not in iniquity, but rejoiceth in the truth;
Beareth all things, believeth all things, hopeth all things, endureth all things.
Charity never faileth: but whether there be prophecies, they shall fail; whether there be tongues, they shall cease; whether there be knowledge, it shall vanish away. (1 Corinthians 13:1-8)
How do we practice charity in our everyday lives? The following thoughts by a couple of our leaders speak to this question;
We need to be kinder with one another, more gentle and forgiving. We need to be slower to anger and more prompt to help. We need to extend the hand of friendship and resist the hand of retribution. In short, we need to love one another with the pure love of Christ, with genuine charity and compassion and, if necessary, shared suffering, for that is the way God loves us….
We need to walk more resolutely and more charitably the path that Jesus has shown. We need to ‘pause to help and lift another’ and surely we will find ‘strength beyond [our] own.’ If we would do more to learn ‘the healer’s art,’ there would be untold chances to use it, to touch the ‘wounded and the weary’ and show to all ‘a gentle[r] heart'” (President Howard W. Hunter, 14th President of the Church).
Real charity is not something you give away; it is something that you acquire and make a part of yourself….
Perhaps the greatest charity comes when we are kind to each other, when we don’t judge or categorize someone else, when we simply give each other the benefit of the doubt or remain quiet. Charity is accepting someone’s differences, weaknesses, and shortcomings; having patience with someone who has let us down; or resisting the impulse to become offended when someone doesn’t handle something the way we might have hoped. Charity is refusing to take advantage of another’s weakness and being willing to forgive someone who has hurt us. Charity is expecting the best of each other” (Elder Marvin J. Ashton, member of the Quorum of the Twelve until his death in 1994).
Charity, the pure love of Christ is a great gift and a blessing in our lives. Such a gift is available to all. We have been extended an invitation and given a commandment to love one another as Christ loves us. As we exchange gifts this day, let us also remember the gift of Charity. There is no doubt in my mind that this troubled world would be a much better place if each of us had a little more Charity in our hearts.
In this spirit, I would like to invite you to take a moment today to send an email, a text message, a phone call, and express your love for someone in your life. Take a moment and think about someone else that can use a hug, a friend to lean on, a helping hand, a parent that listens and loves unconditionally. Happy Valentine’s Day everyone. May our hearts be filled with Charity this day and every day of our lives!
