True Love

What is does it mean to truly love your neighbor? Are we, as Christians, really following Christ’s example? I discussed Seminary Graduation earlier and how difficult it was. That night after we were home, a woman from our Ward and her daughter stopped by to see my daughter. They let her know that what happened wasn’t right and shouldn’t have gone that way. They spent a few minutes catching up and seeing what else was going on in her life and what the future held. This mother was teaching her daughter how to care for those around you. She was teaching by example. While my daughter didn’t really want to talk with anyone, especially at that point, I do think it helped a little.

My thought today is, our we as members of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints doing enough? I think back to the Ministering program, and I have to say that I am a terrible minister. I was assigned a family at one time, that I think are great. I do love them. I found out that the mother was in the ER the night before and so I started texting the dad to see what was going on and figure out if anything needed to be done to help. I was taking care of the needs at hand. I was making sure everything was going ok. Was that enough? Did I do my job? Some would say yes, you reached out and showed you cared. Sure, I took care of the immediate need, but I don’t believe I actually showed Christ like love. I didn’t do enough or follow through. How many times do we extend help by saying, please let us know if there is anything we can do to help? I should be saying, over the next two days what can I do to help?. Or even better, would me being smart enough to say, this is what I am going to do….

This same young woman did exactly what we all do. Already knowing that my daughter feels excluded and not welcome, she extended an invitation saying, I am home all summer so call me if you want to do something. Is my daughter going to call her; I doubt it. Sure, it was a nice thing to offer, but in the end this type of invitation isn't going anywhere.

How many of us that need physical help are willing to reach out and ask? I know I don’t. How many of us are willing to reach out to say I need a friend? As a follower of Christ, I need to be always watching over my flock and seeing where I can step in and do something. Who are my flock? Obviously, my family and those I have been assigned to minister. But it also includes my Quorum; the Quorum I am in and have said I would be part of. It also includes my Ward and neighborhood. Doctrine and Covenants section 20 lists the duties of the Priesthood; verse 42 states that we are to watch over the church. This doesn’t mean to make sure nobody is vandalizing the building (but if we see this, we need to report it). It means that we need to be constantly watching, just like a shepherd watches over his flocks. He is scanning around looking for danger; looking for wandering sheep and looking for things that just don’t look right and where he needs to step.

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