Yesterday my mom read a talk to my family about the gift of love and how it is the most important gift we can receive. Love shown between family and friends encourages us and uplifts us as we face our trials in life--I know this from personal experience. I was going through a really tough time last year and through the help of my family and friends I was able to keep a positive outlook and make it through that particular trial. But I think the most important source of love comes from our Heavenly Father and His son Jesus Christ. Whether or not we have any family or friends to love and help us, we always have theirs. Today I was reading through a news article on Elder Wirthlin (because he died yesterday) and I found a quote in it which he had said in General Conference. He said, "Not even death can take us from the eternal blessings promised by a loving Heavenly Father." Though we face trials of all kinds (like death), we will always receive the blessings promised to us by our loving Heavenly Father because he loves us. He wants us to succeed in this life as much as we do--and more, but sometimes we don't realize it. He helps us through the trials instead of eliminating them so that we can grow and be able to withstand more situations and help others with our experiences--showing our love to them.
When my mom read that talk to our family yesterday, she encouraged us to give gifts of love this Christmas to those around us. It's that type of giving that will ultimately help us and those we love to return to our Heavenly Father someday. The material presents, while they do make us happy in some ways, don't bring the kind of joy to our lives that comes from truly giving of ourselves to someone else.
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3 comments:
I love the gospel because it gives us this happy outlook--we DO have trials and hard times, yet they make us stronger and through them we can become closer to Christ. And it is so simple to share the gift of Christ with others. Whether sharing the gospel with a non-member or helping our friends and sharing our love with them and setting examples (as you are very good at) we can help bring people closer to our Savior. I love you!
Kimberly,
I'm just a Dad in Bountiful who saw an article in LDS Living about Professor Holzapfel's blog assignment for his students and I'm reading through your all's blogs with the thought of maybe starting my own in the spirit of Elder Ballard's suggestion.
I enjoyed this blog entry and the one with your "Thoughts on Christ" because there was no contention, just a simple explanation of your feelings of applied Gospel principles in everyday situations.
I'm sure you'll be a wonderful school teacher; there is such a need for quality teachers.
There is a gift of love that comes from the Savior. However, it is really hard to hold onto that thought when a tough trial comes. I know He loves purely, and will love forever, but I think he uses our friends and families to show us tangibly how much He loves us. Thanks for the post!
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