Charity Endureth Forever

To my son,

               I really enjoyed going to the Bonner Family concert last night with our family and hearing them bear witness of the Savior through their music. One of my favorite songs was Charity which your little sister Charity especially loved. She thought they were singing about her as they repeated that word over and over throughout the song. We are blessed to have Charity in our family, and I hope that it is a reminder to all of us to have more charity for each other every day. In the Book of Mormon we learn about charity from the prophet Mormon who taught us this: “And charity suffereth long, and is kind, and envieth not, and is not puffed up, seeketh not her own, is not easily provoked, thinketh no evil, and rejoiceth not in iniquity but rejoiceth in the truth, beareth all things, believeth all things, hopeth all things, endureth all things. Wherefore, my beloved brethren, if ye have not charity, ye are nothing, for charity never faileth. 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; and whoso is found possessed of it at the last day, it shall be well with him.” That list of traits is one for us to aspire to acquire all our lives: we should strive each day to be more longsuffering and kind, more humble and full of good will towards others. Ultimately, though, we need the Lord’s help to develop this kind of love, and Mormon encouraged us to earnestly seek the gift of charity: “Wherefore, my beloved brethren, pray unto the Father with all the energy of heart, that ye may be filled with this love” (Moroni 7:45-48). We should pray often to our Father in Heaven to help us feel this love for others in our hearts just as the Savior feels for us.

               I saw a display of this kind of love yesterday in, of all places, the BYU football game. At the very end of the game, there was almost no time left and BYU had a chance to win the game with a field goal. It was a relatively close field goal and one that should have been easy for the kicker, especially BYU’s very experienced and talented kicker. But something went wrong and the crowd was shocked as he missed it, losing the chance to win the game on the spot and sending it into overtime instead. In overtime the other team did not score and BYU set up for another field goal. Again it was relatively close for the same kicker and if he made it the game would be over with a win for the team. Incredibly and to the horror of the fans, he missed it again, sending the game into a second overtime with another chance for them to lose. Luckily the team pulled off the win in the overtime without the need for the kicker and the game ended with all well for BYU. Shortly thereafter the camera zoomed in on a scene that was a powerful one for me: the quarterback was embracing the kicker who was in tears. Of course I don’t know what was said, but it was clear that there were no hard feelings or animosity towards the kicker for his mistakes—it appeared to me that the quarterback was expressing his total support and love for his friend who was undoubtedly devastated with his missed field goals. That was, as I saw it, an image of true charity between friends and one that I will remember for a long time. That is the kind of friend that we want to be and the kind of comfort we want to offer to those in need around us. I hope that you and I will both remember that the most important thing we can gain in this life is charity. May we strive to always be full of the Savior’s love for all those around us and I know we will find the joy we seek. 

Love,

Dad