Ultimate Charity

I gave a talk yesterday during sacrament meeting-
I thought i'd share it here.

CHARITY

I think that for many of us, charity is something that we have to work for. I don’t think that everybody has the natural ability to be charitable. I believe most of us have to choose to put our selfishness aside, to become more charitable. Charity is a choice.

Growing up in Saint George Utah, I was one of the rare, nonmembers in my grade. At a young age, I didn’t understand why none of my friends were able to play on Sunday, I didn’t understand how going to church on Sunday was important than riding bikes outside, I didn’t understand that Mondays were for family, I didn’t understand  when one girl told me while at recess one day, that Jesus gave her belly button. I didn’t grow up in an environment that understanding all of that, believing it and finding hope in that was normal. As I grew older, throughout middle school and high school, I had friends that were no longer allowed to be in my presence, I had friends that would come over to my house and ask why there was a coffee pot on the counter with a disgusted look on their faces. I remember the first time a new friend came over to my house, she saw the wine cooler in my kitchen, she made me feel guilty and sad, like it was my fault it was there, she made me feel like my parents were awful because of this, she called her mom to come and pick her up right then and there, she explained why she wanted to be picked up and her mom acted the same way towards me. I remember getting criticized for the things I chose to wear. I was criticized for going on the weekly Costco trip with my family on Sundays.

I start the negative because something good came from anything negative or hard in our lives. This is where I learned to love unconditionally. I knew how badly it hurt to be seen by the things somebody doesn’t agree with, rather than the good intentions of your heart or the person that you are destine to become. Four years ago, I joined the LDS church. Instead of being bitter about the way I had been treated by some Mormons, I chose to learn from it. I chose to come out on top and be a better light of Christ. I want to share the story of some of my struggles while converting. Many don’t know this; but my family and I struggled in our relationships due to my choice in converting. It brought a lot of discomfort and pain to every person involved. My family and I had to rediscover our love for one another, we had to put our differences aside, open our hearts and minds in order to respect each other. I had to learn that some things they chose to do and say, were no longer things that I agreed with; but it was still possible to love them. I had to learn how to accept them for everything that they were, instead of just the parts of them that I agreed with. And they had to learn how to love me unconditionally, despite me being the outcast. They had to learn that they could trust me to accept them, and love them just as I had done in the past. They had to learn that they didn’t have to change just because my beliefs were altered. Together as a family, we learned how to love one another unconditionally.

When looking up charity, we get the typical “the pure love of Christ” and “giving” definition. When I think of the pure love of Christ, I think of how giving he was with his love. After all, the ultimate sacrifice was made for us, knowing that we WOULD make mistakes, that we would transgress and that we were imperfect. But Jesus Christ did it despite that knowledge, out of unconditional love, not only for us; but for all who will ever live.

Jesus Christ made each and every person he came into contact with feel important, loved and worthy of his love. He makes each of us, every single day feel as if we are enough. Jesus Christ has never once made me feel less important than another person, he has never kicked me down, telling me I wasn’t enough, he has never wrongfully judged me, gossiped about me, or turned his back on me. Our ultimate goal is to become more like Christ – but I think that often times, our actions do not show our desire to become more like Christ. I think we should all strive to judge, gossip or turn our heads away from people a little less. We’ve all heard the scripture: “Love one another; as I have loved you,” JOHN 13: 34

An example of Jesus Christ loving unconditionally: the woman caught in adultery. Jesus Christ goes against the accusers, to protect and love the woman. He does not see this woman for the sins that she has made, he is not angry with her for her mistakes. The Savior shows this woman compassion, mercy and forgiveness. The Savior loves unconditionally, at all times, through all circumstances. He looks past our mistakes, past our guilt and shows us a perfect love. The Savior tells the woman to go, and sin no more. He tells the accusers: “He that is without sin among you, let him first cast a stone at her.” We all make mistakes, we all do things we are not proud of, and none of us are perfect. When others don’t meet our expectations, we need to love them anyways.

We often do not know what another person is going through. We do not know what it took for them to get out of bed in the morning, we do not know how many tears they have cried. But what we do have knowledge of, and control over, is that our kindness, compassion and unconditional love can empower somebody who really needs it.

Charity never faileth --- Thomas S. Monson

"A young couple, Lisa and John, moved into a new neighborhood. One morning while they were eating breakfast, Lisa looked out the window and watched her next-door neighbor hanging out her wash.

“That laundry’s not clean!” Lisa exclaimed. “Our neighbor doesn’t know how to get clothes clean!”

John looked on but remained silent.

Every time her neighbor would hang her wash to dry, Lisa would make the same comments.

A few weeks later Lisa was surprised to glance out her window and see a nice, clean wash hanging in her neighbor’s yard. She said to her husband, “Look, John—she’s finally learned how to wash correctly! I wonder how she did it.”

John replied, “Well, dear, I have the answer for you. You’ll be interested to know that I got up early this morning and washed our windows!”

Tonight I’d like to share with you a few thoughts concerning how we view each other. Are we looking through a window which needs cleaning? Are we making judgments when we don’t have all the facts? What do we see when we look at others? What judgments do we make about them?"

I think that a lot of us forget that charity does not require a lot of outward service. Think about charity as loving unconditionally. I think that Charity is loving the stranger walking down the same isle as you in the grocery store, just as much as you love your friends. It is picking each other up even if a pick up isn’t necessary. It’s looking beyond flaws with a heart full of overwhelming amounts of love, it’s putting our judgments of “this person is weird because he or she does this differently than I do” it’s putting our judgments of this person smells funny, this person doesn’t have the cutest clothes, this person has no common sense, this person isn’t nice to me so I should be nice to them.. Aside. It is being a friend to everybody. “A friend loveth at all times,” PROVERBS 3:12It’s seeing the person with the eyes that Christ sees them. It’s seeing them as the being that Christ bled and died for, just as he did for you. 

I think that the ultimate charity is loving each other unconditionally. We're all struggling, we're all going through trials and we're all in this together.