The Pure Love of Christ #11

What is the pure love of Christ?

According to Moroni 7:47, it’s charity.
47 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.

The Bible dictionary says under “The Pure love of Christ” is also charity.
Charity: The highest, noblest, strongest kind of love, not merely affection; the pure love of Christ. It is never used to denote alms or deeds of benevolence, although it may be a prompting motive

The “Teachings of the Presidents of the Church, Howard W. Hunter,
Chapter 20, Walking the Savior’s Path of Charity” also says it’s charity.
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.

And the list goes on, but I pulled out just a few to give us an idea of where this is going.

As we can plainly see the answer to the question is CHARITY.
Hum, ok, we now know that the Pure Love of Christ is charity. So what is charity and how does it play a part in our lives?

I think the first step in understanding charity is to recognize that charity is more than just giving assistance to the poor or needy, whether it be through physically helping someone or by giving monetary assistance. That would be too easy, but it is one part of the process of being charitable.

 The second part of charity is LOVE. It’s easy to give money to the panhandler on the corner, or work in a soup kitchen for the poor on Christmas day. But we are to love our brothers and sisters in the same way we love ourselves or our family. If you had a brother, sister, mother, father or child that was less fortunate then we are, wouldn’t our love for them make us want to care for them the best that we could?

Something I started to realize when I began reading the scriptures and pondering the concept of charity is what my own thought process was when confronted by a panhandler or someone in need that was less fortunate than myself. I looked at that person and started to question, why! The panhandler, does he want money for drugs or food? If for food, I will most definitely give it to him. But if they looked like they would use the money for drugs I would just pass by them.

People that physically needed help I would question, what brought them to this point? Most of the time I would still help because in my mind I thought it was the “Christ-like thing to do”. But then it hit me, would I feel the same or ask the same questions if it was one of my family members? Would the reason matter? I love them and want to do what ever I can to help them.

That was a light bulb moment for me. Everyone is a brother or sister to me. The fact was, I was judging them. I felt about as low as you could when I realized what I was doing.

Nephi tells us in 2nd Nephi 31:20
20 Wherefore, ye must press forward with a steadfastness in Christ, having a perfect brightness of hope, and a love of God and of all men. Wherefore, if ye shall press forward, feasting upon the word of Christ, and endure to the end, behold, thus saith the Father: Ye shall have eternal life.

And there’s no questioning the council from the Savior himself in Matthew 22:36-40.
36 Master, which is the great commandment in the law?
37 Jesus said unto him, Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy mind.
38 This is the first and great commandment.
39 And the second is like unto it, Thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself.
40 On these two commandments hang all the law and the prophets.

We need to learn how to be more like the Savior and gain The Pure Love of Christ. Don’t ask why they need help, ask how can I help, for their our brothers and sisters and we love them.

Finding Christ-Like Love In Setting Boundaries. #10

If nothing else the title sounds interesting. And if I came across it, I would stop and read what it had to say. So let me try to make your time reading this profitable.

We all know that our Savior Jesus Christ was perfect in his love and understanding of all Heavenly Father’s children. But knowing all that we do, from our studying of the scriptures and what has been testified of by the Prophets of the church, how could he have loved everyone the way that he did? I have a hard time just trying to get to work in the morning without getting irritated at someone.

We are taught that we need to develop Christ-like attributes. And that includes loving our brothers and sisters. All of our brothers and sisters, even the ones that mistreat us, hate us, hurt us or just don’t want to deal with us. Not an easy task, but were do we start?

I think the answer could be found in setting boundaries.

Boundaries are essential to healthy relationships, whether it be family, friends, co-workers or passersby. Loving someone doesn't mean loving them to the point that they hurt or mistreat us. And sometimes the pain and hurt can come from you loving them too much.

Having healthy boundaries means “knowing and understanding your limits and how far you're willing to go to love that person. Then having the courage to not cross over those limits you’ve set and letting that person make their own decisions on whatever you were trying to help them with. This can be especially hard with people we love, children, spouses, parents or close family friends. There are times we can love them so much that we are willing to do anything and everything in our power to help them. But sometimes that leads to us getting hurt because in our eyes their making unwise decisions. But in all situations we need to remember one thing, We have all been given the gift of free agency.

That’s were setting boundaries can help. By allowing people to make their own decisions and exercising their free agency they will learn and progress. Good or bad they will learn. But if we become so emotionally involved in their decisions or actions it can do harm to us and our emotional state. We are here to help and guide not dictate and manage when it comes to loving people.

Can we love someone enough to let them fail if need be?

Matthew 10:14
And whosoever shall not receive you, nor hear your words, when ye depart out of that house or city, shake off the dust of your feet.

We can only try to help someone through love, compassion, forgiveness and patience but at the end of the day they have free agency to choose their own path.

2nd Nephi 2:27
Wherefore, men are free according to the flesh; and all things are given them which are expedient unto man. And they are free to choose liberty and eternal life, through the great Mediator of all men, or to choose captivity and death, according to the captivity and power of the devil; for he seeketh that all men might be miserable like unto himself.

The Savior had unconditional love, forgiveness, compassion and patience. But I bet He also set boundaries.

Finding success in your mindset. #9

When we think of the word "mindset" what's the first thing you think of?
For me it's having my thoughts in order to prepare myself for what I'm about to try to accomplish.

That being said, shouldn't we continually keep a proper mindset to stay focused on Gospel truths, Heavenly Father's will, the promptings of the Holy Ghost and so forth?

When I was about 16 my then brother-in-law gave me a small bit of wisdom that stuck with me throughout my life. And only now has it become evident that this small bit of wisdom is really a nugget of gold in progressing in the Gospel. He told me "You become what you read and who you associate with". I just took it to mean if you don't want to do drugs then don't hang around drug dealers or if you want to learn how to work on cars then read and study about cars.

All in all good solid advice. BUT, there's so much more to this small bit of wisdom.

I started thinking about it in the context of the Gospel. If you truly want to be more Christ-like then you need to surround yourself with people of the same mindset. Its very difficult to keep a Christ-like attitude when you're surrounded by people that give no thought to the Gospel of Jesus Christ.

D&C 45:32
But my disciples shall stand in holy places, and shall not be moved; but among the wicked, men shall lift up their voices and curse God and die.

Now when it comes to what we spend our time reading; meaning books, television, or the internet, at times it's easy to see if we're being edified or lead away captive. And I'm not just talking about pornography or profanity, those are easy to see that we're being lead away from the Spirit. It's all of the little things that we tend to not watch out for. Such as, things that lead us to what the world deems as precious. Beauty, fame, fashion, money, violence, drama and so forth. What all of these things have in common is they all deal with envy and pride and most of all they lead us away from staying focused on Heavenly Father's and our eternal goals.

I just find that I need to constantly stay focused (sometimes minute by minute) on the Gospel of Jesus Christ or my thoughts are quickly lead away from the spirit and I just can't allow this.

Let me see if this makes it a little clearer.
I'm on my way to work and turn on the radio to hear the weather for the day. I usually listen to CD's of a conference talk or the scriptures. But this morning I need the weather report. Ok, now we have a quick commercial about the new convertible Tesla car. Now I'm in trouble my mind is off and running.

Humm, the new Tesla really looks great. How great would it be to pull up at work in one of those. Fire engine red with loud mufflers. I would be the talk of the office and it's only obvious that one of the young ladies at the office would like to have a ride in my new car. Not to mention most of my peers would think that I'm making great money to afford this fine automobile.

In less then a minute I've been lead away from my righteous desires. In less than one minute I'm now dealing with pride, envy. It's all about staying focused.

Alma 37:36-37
36 Yea, and cry unto God for all thy support; yea, let all thy doings be unto the Lord, and whithersoever thou goest let it be in the Lord; yea, let all thy thoughts be directed unto the Lord; yea, let the affections of thy heart be placed upon the Lord forever.
37 Counsel with the Lord in all thy doings, and he will direct thee for good; yea, when thou liest down at night lie down unto the Lord, that he may watch over you in your sleep; and when thou risest in the morning let thy heart be full of thanks unto God; and if ye do these things, ye shall be lifted up at the last day.

Philippians 4:8
Finally, brethren, whatsoever things are true, whatsoever things are honest, whatsoever things are just, whatsoever things are pure, whatsoever things are lovely, whatsoever things are of good report; if there be any virtue, and if there be any praise, think on these things.