Throughout my childhood and into my teens I prepared to go on a mission and be a missionary. I grew to love the topic of charity. It became and is still one of the core motivators I have found in my life. It is a core part of my faith in God and I believe it helps me turn my will to His. It has given me the sliver of a glimpse of the divine perspective relayed in the words "…the worth of souls is great in the sight of God;" (D&C 18: 10).
I have wondered long about why God and Christ would love me. I have children and I know how much I love them. It is hard for me to comprehend love greater than that I have for my children and wife. If I were to compare the love I feel for my children with the love God feels for me and specifically for his only-begotten Son I suspect the comparison would be that of a candle held up to the sun. Even with this love God has chose to offer his perfect son as a ransom for me.
Elder Uchtdorf said in his conference talk The Love of God from 2009:
Since "God is love," the closer we approach Him, the more profoundly we experience love. But because a veil separates this mortality from our heavenly home, we must seek in the Spirit that which is imperceptible to mortal eyes.
Christ's love is defined as charity. When most people hear the word charity they think of many different things loosely resembling charity. The charity I am talking about is not from a raffle, banquet or food drive, which are common topics for charity. I'm not talking about some special organization focused on a sad story with sad music and sad pictures of people or animals or plants very far away. It is not a celebrity distracting you from the lives you can actually impact leaving you with an echo of importance sounding from your mild inconvenience. I should not deride this form of charity, but time and time again I have found it leads to shallow help and swollen pride. The one thing I will say is the closer to home it is, while avoiding pride and not stroking ego, the better for those engaged and the recipients.
The main focus around charity I have was sparked when I read a talk by Marvin J. Ashton titled The Tongue Can Be a Sharp Sword which helped me shape this idea of charity. It changed my perspective of charity, for instance he states:
Real charity is not something you give away; it is something that you acquire and make a part of yourself. And when the virtue of charity becomes implanted in your heart, you are never the same again.
I grew to love and hunger after this idea of charity and becoming filled with the same love that Christ has. If "…charity is the pure love of Christ…" (Moroni 7:47), I want to be filled with it. As my bones hold up my body, I want this charity to hold up the motives of my soul. I want to love God the way Christ does. This love for God is a way that I can worship Him. Not only can I but it is imperative that I do, as Christ articulated in His teaching of the first and second great commands (Matt. 22: 36-40).
At this time when I was starting to develop this deep love for charity I heard the following quote. I do not remember the author and when searching for it I could not identify it, but I believe I heard it in one of Truman G. Madsen's lectures.
The most sacred thing you will encounter in your day to day life, aside from the sacrament, is your fellow man.
- Author Unknown
With an eye to charity I focused on how important our fellow men are. I grew to appreciated that we being God's children have the seeds of his divinity within us. That brought around a motivation for the worth of souls being so great in God's eyes. Being singularly focused on charity, I still noted the importance placed on the sacrament.
I have not set out to create an importance tier list of gospel principles and concepts. I have neither the knowledge nor the authority to undertake such a task. I do however have a love for God and I try to find joy and love for the things that bring glory to him. His children are clearly one of those things. Another act that brings glory to God is partaking worthily and intentionally of the sacrament. It is a way that we worship both Christ's sacrificing of himself for us and God's sacrifice of His beloved Son for us.
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