Unity Despite Diversity

Elder Quentin L. Cook spoke of the importance of having our Hearts Knit in Unity and Righteousness, despite our cultural and/or cosmetic diversity. He reminded us that, despite any and all differences, we are all children of God. We are brothers and sisters. Our spiritual unity should be stronger than our earthly differences. He said that unity and diversity can coexist. We don't have to be identical, or even similar, in order to be united. We should look past our earthly and temporal differences and instead see each other as part of the same eternal, spiritual family.

There's a lot of division in the world these days, but there doesn't need to be. We can find a common ground and our shared humanity by focusing on our shared identity as children of God.

Rozlyn's Love

My favorite part of sister Michelle D. Craig's talk, Eyes to See, was the story of Rozlyn and Sister Smith. Sister Smith was at church, without her husband, and possibly without her children as well. She felt alone, and she wanted to be left alone. Yet, Rozlyn could see Sister Smith's pain, and she offered comfort. In Sister Smith's words, Rozlyn "wrapped me in her arms and said, ‘Sister Smith, I can tell today is a bad day for you. I’m so sorry. I love you.’"

What strikes me most about this interaction is that this very well may be the only things Rozlyn said to Sister Smith. She might not have asked her the obvious, personal question of why she was at church alone. She certainly didn't offer any criticism. She might not have even volunteered any unrequested advice. She just offered her love and her sympathy. Sometimes, that's all a person really needs.

I want to follow Rozlyn's example. I want to be there for people when they need me and to not put any more pressure on them than they already feel. I want to comfort people, not make them uncomfortable. I want to be kind and loving and gentle for those who need me to be. I want to follow the promptings of the Spirit n giving people whatever they need, be that advice, sympathy, or just a hug. Some people offer what they call "tough love." I want to offer love like Rozlyn's.

Invisible Aid

Michelle D. Craig began her talk by sharing the story of Elisha and his army of invisible angels. This prompted me to think about how much help we may be getting from God without realizing it. I often don't see God's hand in my life, but I also don't often see evidence of calamities that He prevented or problems that He solved for me before I realized they were problems. God doesn't often act in visible ways, but that doesn't mean that He's not acting. He could be, and probably is, doing a great deal of work for us behind the scenes. We should be grateful for such help, even if we don't always see it.

Christlike in Many Ways

Elder Scott D. Whiting concluded his talk, "Becoming like Him" by saying "I know that becoming like Him through His divine help and strength is achievable step by step. . . . I know this—in part because I see attributes of Him in so many of you." Becoming exactly like Jesus Christ is difficult, nigh impossible to pull off in one lifetime, but becoming somewhat like Jesus Christ is so achievable that, in some ways, most of us have already done it.

Let's take honesty for an example, since Elder Whiting also used honesty as an example of an attribute of Christ. Everyone is at least somewhat honest. No one lies all the time. Just about everyone often, or at least occasionally, tells the truth. Granted few people are always as honest as Jesus is and was, but just about everyone has at least a little bit of honesty in them, so just about everyone is at least a little bit like Jesus Christ, at least in that one way.

Then take charity for example, and kindness, and understanding, and compassion. Take faith and hope for example. Take obedience and diligence and discipline for example. Take virtue for example. Take love for example. Everyone loves someone, even if only themselves. By loving that person, they are at least that much like Jesus Christ.

Jesus Christ has a lot of attributes, and all of us have at least a sliver of each of them. All of us have at least some measure of many, most, if not all Christlike attributes. We are more Christlike than we realize. Is it so unthinkable that we might get even better?

All of us are at least a little bit Christlike in at least a few of His attributes, and we can, over time, get even better. Becoming as perfect as Jesus Christ is will take an eternity, but becoming Christlike is so achievable that, in many ways, we've already done it.

Optimizing Our Progress Toward Perfection

In Elder Scott D. Whiting's October 2020 General Conference talk, "Becoming like Him," he gave us the following bit of encouragement, which he called "a brief word of caution":

The commandment to be like Him is not intended to make you feel guilty, unworthy, or unloved. Our entire mortal experience is about progression, trying, failing, and succeeding.

I'm not sure where the "caution" comes in. This looks like a comfort to me. Maybe he's trying to caution us against feeling "guilty, unworthy, or unloved"? If anything, I think the following lines are more of a "brief word of caution":

You are good enough, you are loved, but that does not mean that you are yet complete. There is work to be done in this life and the next.

Progression is a tricky thing, partly because it's difficult to know our standing before God, how we should feel about ourselves, and how quickly we should try to progress. For instance, we're far from perfect, but we have the potential to become perfect. Feeling like we're so bad that we can never become perfect, is wrongful thinking, but so is celebrating ourselves for our potential to become perfect, but not actually taking the steps toward achieving that potential. We should not allow ourselves to grow overwhelmed or to grow lax.

We have to keep progressing toward perfection, though the pace itself can also prove challenging. If we try too hard, we'll burn ourselves out. If we don't try hard enough, we won't be progressing as quickly as we could. We need to try to find a balance. If you're burning yourself out, slow down, but don't stop. If you're comfortable at your current pace, try to speed up a bit and see if you can still handle it. If we regularly adjust our rate of attempted progress, we can optimize our progress to our ever-changing capabilities and circumstances.

We have a lofty goal ahead of us, and it will take an eternity an multiple miracles to reach it, but we can find a balance between loving ourselves and improving ourselves, and we can find the optimal rate of progress (or something close to it) for us in our present circumstances. We can become like Jesus Christ. It'll just take us a decent amount of work and a decent amount of time to do it.

I Can't Share What's on My Mind

I sometimes wonder whether it's a good idea to maintain my blog. Many of the thoughts that occupy my mind are too personal and/or too controversial to share. For example, I've been thinking a lot about my relationship with God, but I'm not exactly eager to tell the whole world about it. This blog is too public to share anything private. Granted, that hasn't stopped me much in the past, but still, I have thoughts that I don't want to broadcast on the Internet, even if they are, as Facebook says "what's on [my] mind." Some thoughts are better kept private. I can't share what's on my mind right now. I hope you understand.

God Knows the Reasons

When tragedy strikes, we sometimes wonder why. Why did this happen to us? Why do bad things happen to good people? Why is God doing this to me? It's very tempting to dwell on such questions. We think that, if only we knew why this trial had to happen, we might endure it better. But Elder David A. Bednar spoke of someone with a different attitude.

He forthrightly declared that he personally did not understand the reasons or timing for such an event. But I always will remember this good man also declaring that he knew God knew the reasons and timing for the passing of his child—and that was good enough for him.

We don't need to know the reasons why bad things happen. We just need to know that God has His reasons, and trust that God's reasons are good ones. Personally, I like to know the reasons for things, particularly for commandments, but if I trust God enough, I really shouldn't need to. I don't need to know why God gives us certain trials and commandments, so long as I remember that God has our best interest at heart and trust that, so long as we follow Him, He'll make sure everything will work out.

Sometimes, only God knows why things are the way things are, but as long as we trust God, we can learn to be okay with not knowing the reasons why.