Without love and charity we are nothing
What exactly is love? What exactly is charity? These two words have a great impact with society ever since humanity ever started. Charity can take many forms and love can be viewed many different ways. One idea most of us can agree on is that love is a deep feeling or care we have for someone. For example I know my parents love me, since they made time for me and with that they also had charity since they would always have food on the table and always giving me advice for the problems I was currently having or that will lay ahead in the future. You could say that sexual preferences or feelings is love, and it can be but do we really care about that person? Or have those sexual feelings or preferences become meaningless? Now charity is more of an act of service, giving to the poor or helping out a friend. Many of us have expirianced love and charity from someone, they honestly go together, if we have no love then how can we expect to give charity to others? And if we have love and give no charity then why even love at all? As a missionary many families have told me stories that impacted their life. One of them is about a family that lived in Colombia. A lady told me that when her and her brothers where children how there was always food on the table even when their father or mother did not make much money. They also noticed how there was this neighbor who would always slide a plate full of food under their door. And how their mother would split the food for each of her children and she would starve herself so that her own children could eat and enjoy the food. She told me one day how she would see her mom crying looking sad and lonely. And when she would ask what's wrong her mother would say "nothing things will get better". She did not understand at the time what was going on, but now she does and is thankful for the love and charity her mom did to raise all her kids. So why do we need love and charity? Why is it a big part for the plan of eternal happiness?
It's very simple, it just leads to a happier, more positive life.
It is almost natural that when people love you, and do nice charitable things, you would want to do the same. As a Missiomary you get to see a lot of other young ministers personalities. One of those personalities is from Elder Kemp, who right when I first got to a new area, he welcomed me with a warm handshake and gave me some tips and ideas of what I was going to expect. He was honestly friends with all the other missionaries, never did he say anything bad about someone or made you feel un welcomed. That made us just love him more, just because he had love and charity towards others. I also had an expirianced once, when me and my current companion Elder Prado, on a preparation day as we where emailing our families, a handicap boy invited us to play basketball. So we played with him and so did other elders, and that made his day and seeing him happy made us feel good about ourselves. And now we are some of his best friends at church. Everybody wants more friends and more people that don't have a hostile feeling towards us. In fact I can tell you, that a lot of the other young ministers that I am friends with is because they had that love and charity towards me and other people.
Sometimes I have to admit it's hard to love or have charity towards somebody who just does you wrong or who you just can't stand. It could be because of their personality, actions, past history, or issues. I also have this problem, and when somebody doesn't cooperate or let you decide on your own, it can be very difficult to love that person or have charity towards them. I had friends, acquaintances and companions where charity and love is just something you don't want to bring out. During my junior high school years, I had a "friend" who would talk to me and give me some advice. At first I saw him as a friend, however I started to notice that when others where around he would just make rude jokes about me. I just wanted to be nice, I would not say anything and just take it and move on. For 2 school years I feel in that cycle, where he would pretend to be my friend and then pretend not to be my friend. On my 9th grade year I decided to just ignore him, I would avoid him as much as possible, yet he would always try to find me and we'll be around me. However I started to notice he did not have many friends, people would make fun of him a lot, and he seemed alone. Around my 10th grade year in high school he decided to follow a girl that he liked and go to her high school. I still remember the last time I saw him, how I regretted ever being his friend, but I never told him how I really felt, unfortunately my anger towards him stayed. Towards my senior year when I moved to Texas, he added me on Facebook, I then told him in a comment that I never appreciated what he did and I called him some pretty rude names. He tried to explain how we where still friends but instead I ignored him and never talked to him again. Some time after that I can now see I am not even as good as a person he was since I also made him feel bad. People say you can't love everyone, especially those who have done you wrong, they also think that pretending that they don't exist is also okay. I am here to tell you, you can love those who have done you harm in the past. Why be filled with hate towards that person? If it's in the past well it's in the past you can't change it. And if it's in the presence well at least we can change the presence we can learn to love and have charity and if we pretend that they don't exist then where is the charity? There is a scripture in the New Testament of the bible in Luke 6:37 "Judge not, and ye shall not be judged: condemn not, and ye shall not be condemned: forgive, and ye shall be forgiven".
The world would just be a happier place of charity and love where given by every person, I had a companion in Winston Salem on my mission ministry named elder Flores. He once told me a story of a young teenager that wanted to commit suicide. He prayed and asked God "if you are really there and care about me, then tomorrow make at least one person look at me and smile, and I promise I won't jump off the bridge." As he arose in the morning, but his parents where busy and his sister would not even look at him. During school nobody talked to him, the teachers did not even pay him attention. He then started to walk towards a very high bridge, and underneath was pure concrete. As he stared down thinking how he would jump. A man then all of the sudden bumped into his shoulder, and as he turned around to see him, the man smiled and said "oh sorry" and walked away.
What if we all smiled at each other? Even if it was a fake smile, it still shows happiness and love towards another person. Haven't we all wished for mercy for the mistakes we make? We all have to make changes in our life, let us not push away others or secretly envy another person. If I could go back towards my high school years or even when I was younger, I wished I could have changed and become more full of love and charity.
Jesus Christ, Ghandi and Buddha where all full of love and charity towards others. And yes people still hated them, but what do we remember them for? Ghandy because of him and teaching about how we can win without war and hate, he almost untied India. Buddha writing a book started one of the biggest religions since he also had love and charity. And Jesus Christ being the son of God, he said "This is my commandment, That ye love one another, as I have loved you." Jhon 15:12. And Jesus Christ gave his life for us.
I invite you all and myself to have more love and charity towards everyone! It won't be easy and we might need to make a lot of changes, but in the end those little changes will be worth it.
