Remember To Love

Elder K. Brett Nattress told this brief story in the most recent general conference: “Several years ago, Sister Nattress and I moved to Idaho, where we opened a new business. There were long days and nights at the office. Thankfully, we lived just a few blocks away from work. Each week, Shawna and our three daughters—all under the age of six—would come to the office to share lunch together. On one such day after our family lunch, I noticed that our five-year-old daughter, Michelle, had left me a personal message, written on a Post-it Note and attached to my office telephone. It simply read, ‘Dad, remember to love me. Love, Michelle.’ This was a powerful reminder to a young father about those things that matter most.” It can be easy in the busy activities of every day to remember those things that matter most and to put loving others before getting things in all the things that we have to do. As Elder Nattress highlighted in his talk, the Savior showed a powerful example of doing this when He was among the Nephites. After He had spent a whole day with them, He told them He needed to leave: “But now I go unto the Father, and also to show myself unto the lost tribes of Israel, for they are not lost unto the Father, for he knoweth whither he hath taken them.” He had other things on His list to do—important tasks that His Father had commanded Him—and yet “when Jesus had thus spoken, he cast his eyes round about again on the multitude, and beheld they were in tears, and did look steadfastly upon him as if they would ask him to tarry a little longer with them.” He put loving them before all else and put His plans momentarily on hold, telling them: “Behold, my bowels are filled with compassion towards you” (3 Nephi 17:4-6). It was after this that He healed their sick and blessed their children. His highest priority was to show them the love of the Father.

                President Monson spoke about the importance of using our time for the most important things in a talk titled Finding Joy in the Journey. He said, “Stresses in our lives come regardless of our circumstances. We must deal with them the best we can. But we should not let them get in the way of what is most important—and what is most important almost always involves the people around us. Often we assume that they must know how much we love them. But we should never assume; we should let them know. Wrote William Shakespeare, ‘They do not love that do not show their love.’ We will never regret the kind words spoken or the affection shown. Rather, our regrets will come if such things are omitted from our relationships with those who mean the most to us.” He then gave this well-known counsel: “Never let a problem to be solved become more important than a person to be loved.” That should be most important to us in our relationships with our families. There will always be a myriad of problems to solve, but we must not let them grow in importance so much that we forget to show our love to those most important to us. We see an example of this in the Book of Mormon in how Mormon, despite being the general in the midst of a great war, still found time to write to his son and express his love. He wrote, “My beloved son, Moroni, I rejoice exceedingly that your Lord Jesus Christ hath been mindful of you, and hath called you to his ministry, and to his holy work. I am mindful of you always in my prayers, continually praying unto God the Father in the name of his Holy Child, Jesus, that he, through his infinite goodness and grace, will keep you through the endurance of faith on his name to the end” (Moroni 8:2-3). After teaching his son important truths about baptism, he promised to write him again, which he did. In that letter he said, “My beloved son, I write unto you again that ye may know that I am yet alive…. My son, I recommend thee unto God, and I trust in Christ that thou wilt be saved; and I pray unto God that he will spare thy life, to witness the return of his people unto him…. My son, be faithful in Christ; and may not the things which I have written grieve thee, to weigh thee down unto death; but may Christ lift thee up, and may his sufferings and death, and the showing his body unto our fathers, and his mercy and long-suffering, and the hope of his glory and of eternal life, rest in your mind forever” (Moroni 9:1, 22, 25). Mormon clearly loved his son and found time to express his love and encouragement and hope to Moroni even amidst Mormon’s most difficult trials. Mormon knew what was most important, and we too can seek to show that kind of love to those around us, even amidst our most pressing trials. As that daughter of Elder Nattress reminded him, we too can “remember to love” no matter what else is happening.