Charity

Today I was reading a book called "Yearbook". (I've mentioned it before. It's a wonderful book that I recommend to all.) In it, a named Michaela and she says:

"I don't think parents understand how lonely it is to be a teenager. We can't embrace and cling to our parents for comfort; we've out grown that. We've outgrown it from them but still need it from someone. We are looking for someone to fill that void."

The first thing I thought was, "She's so right! No one ever understands us teenagers!"
My next thought was, "She's also right that we can't cling to our parents. That's like what a 4 year old would do."
Then I thought, "Then who can I cling to? There must be someone out there (other than a boy) who I can cling to. Or that understands me and cares for me enough to let me put all of my problems on their shoulders."
Looking back, I can't believe the answer didn't pop into my head at once. Instead it came during young womens today. We were talking about what it means to be dependable. Sister Winward talked about how being dependable means someone who is trust-worthy, responsible, hard working, honest, punctual, someone you can count on, and someone who is steadfast. The next thing she said totally answered my question. She said "Christlike." Hopefully no one noticed, but I sat there staring at her in disbelief. I could not believe that this hadn't been my first thought.
So now, I'm going to give you a little cyber-lecture about God's love.

First, I want to define charity. In the Bible Dictionary it says:

"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 or benevolence."

Isn't that so cool? It didn't just say, the love of Christ, it said the pure love of Christ. I think that's so amazing.

"But charity is the pure love of Christ, and it endureth forever; and whoso is found possessed of it in the last day, it shall be well with him."
-Moroni 7:47

Charity, this pure love of Christ, lasts forever! This is surely something we can't possibly be something we have within us right? Wrong!!! Joseph B. Wirthlin once said:

"Charity, or love, is the greatest principle in existence. If we can lend a helping hand to the oppressed, if we can aid those who are despondent and in sorrow, if we can uplift and ameliorate the condition of mankind, it is our mission to do it, it is an essential part of our religion to do it."

We all have the ability to purely love all those around us. We can show our charity towards others through service. Believe it or not, having charity within our hearts is a commandment. In 2 Nephi 26:30 it says:

". . . wherefore, the Lord God hath given a commandment that all men should have charity, which charity is love. And except they were nothing. Wherefore, if they should have a charity they would not suffer the laborer in Zion to perish."

We need to show charity towards everyone else. But we also recieve it in return. Bonnie D. Parkin said:

"Charity is also the Lord's love for us, shown through His acts of service, patience, compassion, and understanding."

We can know of God's love for us by noticing the blessings in our everyday lives. Now how do we take that love from the Savior, and turn it into something that we can express to others? Marvin J. Ashton once said:

"Real charity is not something you give away; it is something that you acquire and make a part of yourself."

So expressing charity doesn't mean that we decide, "Today I'm going to show charity, but tomorrow I won't." We need to make it part of who we are.
As we seek to distribute our charity to those around us, we need to make sure that we are truly showing charity. A little "checklist" that we can use to ponder our actions is found in Moroni 7:45:

"And charity suffereth long, and is kind, and envieth not, and is not puffed up, seeketh not her own, is not easily provoked, thinketh no evil, and rejoiceth not in iniquity but rejoiceth in the truth, beareth all things, believeth all things, hopeth all things, endureth all things."

So in other words; if it's truly charity that we have, we are kind, and we don't envy other people, we are not prideful, we think pure thoughts, we don't feel happy when we do or see unchristlike things, we bear all trials, and we believe in and hope for all things.
Charity isn't like an emotion really, even thought it is. I think it's more like a personality that everyone has the ability to have. It's a lot like faith. As you saw in our scripture "checklist", a lot of the things on there are things that are often used to describe faith. I thought that was pretty cool.
Ok I think I'm getting a bit off-topic. My whole point was that Jesus Christ understands us. He will always be there to be our crying shoulder, and He takes our sins and problems upon Him. We can always turn to Him in our times of trial and confusion.
My other point was that He shows us His pure love, so we need to make sure that we're doing our best to show others our pure love for them. We can do this through service, and when we do service, we are really serving the Lord. So that's how we can show God our pure love for Him.
I just want to finish by sharing an experience.
A couple weeks ago at mutual, Lauren said that her E.F.Y counselor had encouraged them all to get down on their knees and ask Heavenly Father if He truly loves them. I thought this was a great idea. So that night, I got down on my knees and said," Heavenly Father, I need to know for myself. Do you love me?" After that I sat on my bed and waited and waited for an answer. I was sure I would feel the spirit telling me, "Yes, I do love you." But that didn't happen. Instead, I had the feeling that I should look in the Topical Guide under "God, love of." So I did. I skimmed through, and one scripture caught my eye. So I turned to it and that scripture was, Jeremiah 31:3:

"The Lord hath appeared of old unto me saying, Yea, I have loved thee with an everlasting love: therefore with lovingkindness have I drawn thee."

I would just like to let all of you know that I have a sure testimony of this gospel. I know for certain that he loves all of us. He doesn't just feel affection for us. He loves us with a pure love, charity. He also knows each one of us and that he will never abandon us. He'll always be there when we need Him. And I say these things in the name of Jesus Christ, Amen.

This lecture kind of turned into a testimony I guess. Thanks for letting me go on and on. For the last testimony meetings, I've kind of been wanting to get up, but I'm too much of a chicken. So maybe this will count. I bore my testimony to the like 6 people that read my blog. hopefully it influences you guys as much as it would in a testimony meeting. Lol. Anyway, thanks again for reading my blog. I Love you all!
Love- Rachel