Charity

This week’s lesson was given by Bunnie Kantro. She spoke on Charity from Gospel Principals lesson #30. Lots of information here! If you don’t have your book, go and grab it and follow along with us. I’ll wait…..o.k., ready, let’s begin.

What is Charity?
So begin by asking, what is charity? Charity is the pure love of our Savior. The life that our Savior lived reflects that. The sacrifices that he made for us, reflects his pure love for us. He has commanded that we learn to do the same. He has commended us that we love one another like he has. He also tells that that charity comes from a pure love and we have a pure love, then we show the real genuine concern and compassion for all of our brothers and sisters because it comes from our heart. In 1 Timothy 1:5 it reads, “Now the end of the commandment is charity out of a pure heart, and of a good conscience, and of faith unfeigned:”.

Charity Is the Greatest of All Virtues
In Moroni 7:46-47, it reads, “Wherefore, cleave unto charity, which is the greatest of all, for all things must fail – but charity is the pure love of Christ, and it endureth forever”. The Savior set the example for us to follow. Even though he had a perfect love for everyone, he showed us how we can obtain that perfect love through the spiritual and physical needs of our fellowmen by serving and helping them. “Greater love hath no man than this, that a man la down his life for his friends” (John 15:12-13). Vickie brought up the events in Japan and the earthquake and tidelwave that they experience and how the entire county had bonded together and help each other. There is so much concern for the fellow men. We need to be on the lookout for when others need charity from us.

Charity Includes Giving to the Sick, Afflicted, and Poor
The Savior have us many teachings through stories and parables. A good example of such an example is the parable of the Good Samaritan. “A man was traveling to another city. One day, on the road a man was attacked by bandits. They stole his clothes and money and beat him, leaving him half dead. A priest came along, saw him and passed him by. Then a temple attendant walked over, looked at him, and went on. However, a Samaritan, who was despised by the Jews, came along, and when he saw the man he felt compassion. Kneeling beside him, the good Samaritan bandaged his wounds and took him on a donkey to an inn. He paid the innkeeper to take care of the man until he recovered”. This parable teaches us that we need to help those in need, regardless of whether they are our friends or not. Jesus taught us that we need to give food to the hungry, shelter to those who have none and clothes to the poor. We must visit the sick and those in prison (Matthew 25:34-46). It is not our place to decide whether someone deserves our help or not (Mosiah 4:16-24). As long as family needs are taken care of, then we should help others who need our help. This is how we become more like our Heavenly Father (Matthew 5:44-45).

Charity Comes from the Heart
It’s important that while we are giving to those in need that we do it with the right attitude. Having a bad attitude takes away from the joy that we would otherwise receive. We miss out not only on the blessing but from the experience. We need to teach our children to do the same. My daughter while earning her Personal Progress, did a project where she feed the homeless. She actually did this twice because she got so much joy from doing it. Yes, it was hard seeing these homeless people and families but the joy that she received from doing that, and being able to give up her time to feed these people for a day was a gift and a memory that she will never forget. She felt the compassion for those who had less than herself. Plus, she also got to see another part of the world, the homeless world. The Savior was an example to us. Even though he despised wickedness, he loves the sinner in spite of the sins. He had compassion for the elderly, the poor, the children and the needy. He gave us a commandment saying, “I say unto you, love your enemies, bless them that curse you, do good to them that hate you, and pray for them which despitefully use you, and persecute you…for if ye love them which love you, what reward have yet?” (Matthew 5:44,46).

Developing the Virtue of Charity
One way we can become more charitable is by studying the life of Jesus and keep his commandments. Second, when we are not feeling so charitable, we can pray to have charitable feelings. Third, we must learn to love ourselves and understand how valuable we are in the eyes of our Heavenly Father. Fourth, we must stop thinking that we better than other people. Regardless of where we are in our lives, no one is better than us. That is not what our Heavenly Father wants us to ever believe. It is so easy for us to get caught up in that world of thinking that just because we are better off than others, or we have more, or our lives are better, that we are better than other. That is being judgmental and we don’t have that right to judge everyone else. Just because we have wonderful things now, doesn’t mean that tomorrow, we’ll have nothing. This is very important for us to remember. Joseph Smith said, “The nearer we get to our Heavenly Father, the more we are disposed to look with compassion on perishing souls; we feel that we want to take them upon our shoulders, and cast their sins behind our backs” (178).

Charity is something that is very important to our Heavenly Father. We are his hands and he needs us to help him do his work. Our Heavenly Father holds no judgment and we shouldn’t either. His is depending on us and we can’t let him down. It doesn’t matter how small or how big, as long as we are doing something that is all he wants from us. We can’t be sitting on the fence waiting for someone else to do it if we can do something. This is an important lesson. If you haven’t already read it, make sure to read it. There is a lot of great information here. On that note, I’ll end. Please feel free to share your thoughts with us on this discussion. We would love to hear from you. You just might uplift someone who may need to read about your experiences. Join us next week for another amazing discussion from Debbie Adams who will be talking from TFOT on Courageous Parenting” by Elder Larry R. Lawrence from the General Conference October Ensign. Have a great week! Thanks for joining me, until next time…

Kelly