Love

The talks in my ward's sacrament meeting today were very uplifting, motivating, and insightful to me. Fabio, a member of my ward, spoke on love, and the high councilman spoke on service. Fabio's talk felt so personal to me, I want to share the insights I gained from his talk.

Fabio said that love creates reasons. If a husband's wife is drowning and he has to think whether or not he wants to save her from distress, logically reasoning out in his mind the things she offers him and whether or not it would be in his best interest to risk sacrificing his own life to save her, he doesn't truly love her. But if he loves her, he will jump in and try to save her, without needing to reason in his mind whether or not he wants to. This made me think about my blog a couple weeks ago in which I talked about how love is the only good motivation for doing things. It seems as if this is an important lesson Heavenly Father wants me to learn.

Fabio also said that when we love something, we love it as an end, not as a means for some personal benefit. And because we love that thing as an end, we also love whatever is good for that thing. What they love becomes what we love, and their concerns become our concerns. Therefore, if we love Heavenly Father, what He loves becomes what we love, and His concerns become our concerns. When Fabio said this, I realized that is how we learn to love every human being on this earth.

Sometimes I have pondered on the commandment to have charity, and how difficult it is to truly feel love for everyone on the earth, including the people who annoy me or hurt me. When I have felt overwhelmed by this commandment, I have tried to remember that I shouldn't expect perfection of myself now, but that I can and must remember that God loves them. And I can believe and trust in that love, even if I'm not feeling a whole lot of it at the moment. That was the first part of my answer, and I feel that the second part came to me in Fabio's talk today.

When I find it difficult to love a particular person, not only can I remember that God loves them, but I can revamp my efforts to love God. As I love God more purely, I will love what He loves more purely--including His children I find difficult to love. As I focus on loving God--the first and great commandment--the commandment to love my neighbor will become more feasible and more attainable. And, for me, the task of learning to love God feels less daunting than the task of learning to love my neighbor (i.e., every human being on the earth).

I also find the thought that God's concerns can become my concerns very exciting. His work and glory can become my work and glory. I can learn to connect whatever I am doing in the day to bringing to pass the eternal life of man. I can learn to not care about what is not eternally important. And I can do this by conscientiously striving to love God more deeply.

This evening I read a quote on my friend's website that I really appreciated:
"One word frees us of all the weight and pain of life; that word is love." - Sophocles

And a couple lines from Cheri Call's song "Brokenhearted":
"Broken hearts are deeper;
They've been open wide
And the tears become containers
To hold more love inside
And truly feel what only the brokenhearted can."

I hope and pray that as I learn to God more purely:
My love for Him will motivate me to do the right things,
I will see His children more as He sees them and love them as He loves them,
My daily tasks will take on new meaning as my work will become a mission revolving around His concerns rather than a number of obstacles revolving around my own,
I will be more able to carry the weight and pain of the world because of how His love strengthens and upholds me, and
I will use my life challenges as opportunities to become more compassionate.

Just as Fabio said today, love truly does make the world go round.