Feburary Message

In our ward, the first of every month the bishopric sends out a newsletter. It has a list of activities, birthdays, announcements, and lots of other fun things that relate to our ward and community. Well the front page is a bishopric message, and this month Todd was responsible for writing the message. We found out once Todd was called to be one of the clerks that this responsibility is rotated around. Well Todd prayed and researched and prayed about his topic. I think he did a wonderful job, and since this is my journal, I would like to add his message as an entry.

Todd's Feburary Message...

February has been commercialized as the month of LOVE, and Valentines day became the date for exchanging love messages with our spouses, families, and friends. This February we would like to focus on another kind of love; a higher, nobler, and stronger kind of love. A love that is most joyous to our soul, The Pure Love of Christ. It is the love that Christ has for the children of men, and that the children of men should have for one another.

Charity is known as the pure love of Christ, and nowhere should we express charity more than within our own homes among those we know best. “When we seek to love one another as the Lord loves us, we are filled with charity and are on our way to becoming a people worthy of Zion, preparing to live with God in a celestial state.”

It is through Charity that we, as a Ward Family can be unified. It is through this love that we will become of one heart, and one mind as we individually place the Savior at the center of our lives. “Charity need not be simply giving money or cookies or needed conversation, though these have their place. First and foremost, we should regard charity as a way of being Christ like, the way we think about one another, the way we treat each other, the way we live and love daily. What a great power lies in this pure love, a power of knowing and being known beyond what we can see.”

“Where people have this Spirit with them, we may expect harmony. The Spirit puts the testimony of truth in our hearts, which unifies those who share that testimony. The Spirit of God never generates contention. This Spirit never generates the feelings of distinction between people which lead to strife.

Heeding the Holy Ghost leads to personal peace and a feeling of union with others. It unifies souls. A unified family, a unified Church, and a world at peace depend on unified souls.”

There are some commandments which, when broken, destroy unity. Some have to do with what we say, and some with how we react to what others say. We must never speak hurtful or unkind words about one another. We must see the good in each other and speak highly of each other. If we are to have unity we must forgive and bear no malice toward those who offend us. “We do not know the hearts of those who offend us. Nor do we know all the sources of our own anger and hurt. The Apostle Paul has told us how to love in a world of imperfect people, including ourselves, when he said, “Charity suffereth long, and is kind; charity envieth not; charity vaunteth not itself, is not puffed up, doth not behave itself unseemly, seeketh not her own, is it not easily provoked, thinketh no evil”

“The sacramental prayer can remind us every week of how the gift of unity will come through obedience to the laws and ordinances of the gospel of Jesus Christ. When we keep our covenants to take His name upon us, to remember Him always, and to keep all His commandments, we will receive the companionship of His Spirit, and that will soften our hearts and unite us.”

The Prophet Joseph Smith said, “We ought to have the building up of Zion as our greatest object” It is our testimony that through charity, The Pure Love of Christ, our ward family will be unified. Let us strive to fill our hearts with this kind of love and let us seek to build up Zion.

Love the Bishopric