President Monson Conference Talk; Love the Essence of the Gospel

Love at Home

I was touched by this talk today, and has caused me to reflect on my own relationships. When President Hinckley was alive, he use to admonish us to "try a little harder to do a little better". I think this is one of those principles in which I can try to do better. It's interesting that I read this talk when for the last little while I have been trying to increase this principle in my life. I have set goals to immediately express love to my children as they wake up, come home from school, and as they go to bed. I have prayed for more patience as Jacob and I work on Learning Technics and homework.

There were several thoughts to this talk that I want to remember:

A poem that President Monson quoted:
I have wept in the night
For the shortness of sight
That to sombody's need made me blind
But I never have yet
Felt a tinge of regret
For being a little too kind.

Dale Carnegie, a well-known American author and lecturer, believed that each person has within himself or herself the "power to increase the sum total of the world's happiness...by giving a few words of sincere appreciation to someone who is lonely or discouraged." Said he, "Perhaps you will forget tomorrow the kind words you say today, but the recipient may cherish them over a lifetime." 

I also loved how President said that the "greatest opportunities to demonstrate our love will be within the walls of our own homes. Love should be the very heart of family life, and yet sometimes it is not. There can be too much impatience, too much arguing, too many fights, too many tears. Lamented President Gordon B. Hinckley: "Why is it that the ones we love most become so frequently the targets of our harsh words? Why is it that we sometimes speak as if with daggers that cut to the quick? (end quote) The answers to these questions may be different for each of us, and yet the bottom line is that the reasons do not matter. If we keep the commandments to love one another, we must treat each other with kindness and respect.

President Monson then added, "Of course there will be times when discipline needs to be metered out. Let us remember, however, the counsel found in the Doctrine and Covenants--namely, that when it is necessary for us to reprove another, we afterwards show forth an increase of love. (D&C 121:43)

I feel blessed that quite often love and peace reside in our home; however, this isn't because it comes easily. I truly have been praying for patience every day for the last 15 years. I say I have to work on it, and to be honest--I do. I'm not perfect at it yet. There are those times when I am not as patient as I want to be, and I have then taken the counsel found in the Doctrine and Covenants. This gives me hope. It also gives me hope that as I seek to show kindness and love in my home, and I pray for that help, I can feel promptings guiding me as to how to handle situations in our family life. Sometimes I am too prideful to listen, and I am then always upset afterwards, but in the moments I do listen, peace resides. 

I know that Heavenly Father can help us in this area. He wants there to be love all around us. It is, as President Monson said, "the essence of the Gospel".