Many years ago as a young college student, I visited a roommate at her family farm. It wasn’t a fancy home, but it was rich in love and warmth. As we were getting dinner ready, I noticed a quote posted on the fridge from Elder Marvin J. Ashton that stopped me in my tracks:
“Perhaps the greatest charity comes when we are kind to each other, when we don’t judge or categorize someone else, when we simply give each other the benefit of the doubt or remain quiet. Charity is accepting someone’s differences, weaknesses, and shortcomings; having patience with someone who has let us down; or resisting the impulse to become offended when someone doesn’t handle something the way we might have hoped. Charity is refusing to take advantage of another’s weakness and being willing to forgive someone who has hurt us. Charity is expecting the best of each other.
… Most of us are already well aware of the areas in which we are weak. What each of us does need is family, friends, employers, and brothers and sisters who support us, who have the patience to teach us, who believe in us, and who believe we’re trying to do the best we can, in spite of our weaknesses.
This week we learn about these characteristics of Jesus Christ throughout 2 Nephi Chapter 26:
“The Lord God hath given a commandment that all men should have charity, which charity is love. And except they should have charity they were nothing” (vs 30) … That they should not envy; that they should not have malice; that they should not contend one with another” (vs. 32).
Isn’t all of this learned in the laboratory of family and marriage? It’s the recipe for success in life, as prophets and apostles taught in The Family: A Proclamation to the World”:
“Successful marriages and families are established and maintained on principles of faith, prayer, repentance, forgiveness, respect, love” (para 7).
What would we do differently if Elder Ashton’s quote about charity and these beautiful scriptures were on our fridge, just as they were in that wonderful family farmhouse?
Art: Lovetta Reyes Cairo