"Charity is not an emotion or an action. It is not something we feel or do. Charity is who the Savior is. It is His most defining and dominant attribute."
-Sheri Dew from If Life Were Easy, It Wouldn't Be Hard
That's why real charity, the kind we read about in the scriptures--'never faileth'.
Ours on the other hand, does.
Sister Dew also explained that charity is a bestowal, a gift from our Father to all true followers.
"Thus when we plead for the gift of charity, we aren't asking for lovely feelings toward someone who bugs us or someone who has injured or wounded. We are actually pleading for our very natures to be changed, for our character and disposition to become more and more like the Savior's, so that we literally feel as He would feel and thus do what He would do."
Since reading that last week I have daily plead (sometimes multiple times a day) with all of my might, mind, and strength (see Mormon 9:27; Moroni 10:32) to have this gift. Because I am weak--a super weak mortal. And I need it. I have hungered for it--wanted it.
And then last night before floating away into sweet slumber I read about a couple who is precariously posed to start down the journey we recently embarked on--waiting for their unborn child to die. . .
After the shock and numbness wore off thinking about the storm this family is about to endure, I quickly slid out of my warm sheets and hit the hard ground to plead a stranger's case with full purpose of heart before my Maker. And afterward I thought, is that charity? Or at the least, is that a byproduct of charity? Pleading and pulling for others the way we would for ourselves--advocating their cause? That is what the Savior does for every one of us, and we follow that example when we apply the Golden Rule in doing for others what we hope would be done to and for us. Is it, I wondered.
Maybe.
I don't know--we're dealing with the gospel of Hillary here--I have no clue.
But if it is, everyone of you has that gift. You have pulled, and pushed, and plead our case. My heart is so full just considering that. I don't deserve it--I don't feel worthy of it.
But thank you nonetheless. Thank you for your prayers (past and present). We have felt them and they have made all the difference.
What can I say?
I owe you.
(a lot.)
2 comments:
I absolutely believe that is charity. I've heard my whole life that we are to be charitable, and it wasn't until I felt the very real, physical results from "charity of others" that I understood why.
Thanks so much for your prayers. I think they count double, maybe triple :)
If that isn't charity, I dunno what is. Pleading for others, especially when you know exactly what they are going through, is probably the best act of charity. Like you said, it's what the Savior does for us. You are one of the BEST examples of charity to me, Hill. I look to you as a great example in that department.
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