Lots of Room For Improvement

The LDS Church has General Conference twice a year, an annual and semi-annual conference. Before the semi-annual conference, there is also a Relief Society meeting. Saturday night was that meeting. Typically, I enjoy the meeting and notice one or two of the talks seem to be tailored just for me. This meeting was no exception.

I loved Silvia H. Allred's talk about charity. I love serving and helping others. When possible, I jump at such opportunities. I give and help and until this meeting, was feeling good about myself when I used that to gauge how I fare in the charity department. However, I realized that charity is much more than our outward actions. It goes deep down inside of us and only when our heart becomes as charitable as our actions do we gain that equally important piece of charity - the pure love of Christ. Only then do we emulate a charity that never faileth. This quote from Pres. Monson really struck a chord. Like I said, I was doing good with the service side of charity. What I was forgetting was all the other stuff, which is illustrated nicely in Pres. Monson's quote:

Charity is having patience with someone who has let us down. It is resisting the impulse to become offended easily. It is accepting weaknesses and shortcomings. It is accepting people as they truly are. It is looking beyond physical appearances to attributes that will not dim through time. It is resisting the impulse to categorize others. (Sis. Allred quoted it, I'm assuming from this talk).

I loved Pres. Uchtdorf's talk as well. How could you not? It was impeccable timing considering I had spent a good 10 minutes before the meeting talking to a friend in my ward, all while thinking how horrible of a person I am compared to her. She doesn't eat sugar, white flour, pretty much just whole grains, fruits and vegetables. She's super organized and regimented. She always looks happy, she exercises and she has an amazing energy level. You'd never know she has six kids. She's really spiritual and her kids are little scripture smarties as well. So yeah, still working on not comparing my weaknesses to other's strengths.