Today’s Reading: In Praise of Those Who Save
The great enemy of charity is pride. Pride is one of the biggest reasons marriages and families [and relationships] struggle. Pride is short-tempered, unkind, and envious. Pride exaggerates its own strength and ignores the virtues of others. Pride is selfish and easily provoked. Pride assumes evil intent where there is none and hides its own weaknesses behind clever excuses. Pride is cynical, pessimistic, angry, and impatient. Indeed, if charity is the pure love of Christ, then pride is the defining characteristic of Satan.
A little over two years ago I sat on my bed, crying my eyes out and pouring out my heart and soul to God. I was sitting at a literal cross roads and was begging for direction. The personal revelation I received was very clear, short and to the point – ‘Stop Waiting’.
How many times in our various relationships – marriage, friendship, councils, work roles, courtships, etc. – do we place expectations and literally ‘wait’ for others to do, be, give, etc. to us.
Why is that?
Elder Uchtdorf said it so perfectly in the quote above – pride. I didn’t see myself as a prideful person in my tear filled scene, but when put into the context above, there was undeniably an element of pride happening in my life that I needed to move past, and I simply couldn’t wait for anyone or anything else to move me. I had to get up and stop waiting for change to happen to me and make it happen for myself.
Elder Uchtdorf gave this talk well after my weepy personal experience, and it was such a perfect compliment and reinforcement of all the things I have personally learned in the past few years.
It hit home on so many levels, so many perfectly stated examples of not waiting, showing kindness, going the extra mile… I hope you will take a minute to read/listen to this talk today and open your heart and mind to the spirit and what it has to teach you.
As we prepare ourselves for the upcoming general conference sessions will you accept a challenge? I challenge you to bring a specific question with you and listen with an open heart and mind to what the Lord has to teach you personally.
This week in the Howard W. Hunter manual…
Wife to Eric. Mom to Quinn. And Twins Avery & Rhys. I believe that I am a child of God. Who loves me & I love him. I believe in date nights to the Temple. To the movies. Out to dinner and especially long hikes.
Wednesday’s are my fave day of the week because, ‘it’s Wednesday David’. Red is simply the best color. And black takes a close second.