Dang It...My Charity Faileth Again!

"We tend to define charity as something we do or feel, but in our Father's vernacular, charity means much more. It is the word He uses to describe the character, the nature, the very essence of His Son.
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.  It is what enabled Him to endure the Garden and the cross for you and me.  It is one of the things that makes Him God.  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 us.  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."  
(If Life Were Easy, It Wouldn't Be Hard - Sherry Dew)

Do you ever feel like no matter how hard you try to just be happy,
be good,
love everyone around you,
accept everyone and all their "stuff",
not be offended by little things,
look beyond moments that hurt,
get over yucky junk that makes you feel less than you are...etc., etc., etc.,
You know when you try to have that Pure Love of Christ...
CHARITY...in your heart..
that you FAIL
and not just a little fail,
but a great big giant flopping fail???  
Yep, I know you know what I mean...
We all, every one of us, feel this same dreadful feeling!
Our Charity Faileth AGAIN and again and again!
Dang IT!!!


I absolutely love what George Q. Cannon taught, he said,
"Have I imperfections?
I am full of them.
What is my duty?
To pray to God to give me the gifts that will correct these imperfections.
If I am an angry man,
it is my duty to pray for charity, which suffereth long and is kind.
Am I an envious man?
It is my duty to seek for charity,
which envieth not...
No man ought to say, 'Oh, I cannot help this; it is my nature.'
He is not justified in it, for the reason that God has promised to give strength to correct these things, and to give gifts that will eradicate them..."

Do you ever feel imperfect, angry, envious???

I have and I do and I don't like it one bit!!!
It makes me feel ugly and down right yucky inside.
I love the reminder that is MY DUTY to seek for Charity, to ask for it, to pray earnestly for it...and THEN He will give it to me.
I wish for my character and for my disposition to be lovely...to be like my Savior...I wish to have Charity and I wish for it to never Fail again...I know it will...I am so very far from perfect and I let little things in that fester and get bigger and uglier, instead of just praying for that strength when I need it...He has gifts to give me if I will just ask.  He can help me to feel as He would and to act as He would.

Why don't we (maybe YOU do), perhaps I should ask why don't "I"... ask to be filled with the pure love of Christ?  Why don't I drop to my knees the moment those ugly feelings of insecurity or resentment or fear or jealousy or envy or anger or hurt or loneliness enter into my heart?  I could save myself such sorrow and torment IF only I would plead for, knowing he would deliver, that peace that comes from HIS pure love?  

"Perhaps the greatest charity comes when we are kind to each other, when we don't judge or categorize someone else, when we simply give each other the benefit of the doubt or remain quiet.  Charity is accepting someone's differences, weaknesses, and shortcomings; having patience with someone who has let us down; or resisting the impulse to become offended when someone doesn't handle something the way we might have hoped.  Charity is refusing to take advantage of another's weakness and being willing to forgive someone who has hurt us.  Charity is expecting the best of each other."  Marvin J. Ashton - Ensign June 2004:  Visiting Teaching Message

When I look at Charity in this light, I can do it, I needn't fail!
I LOVE this quote and think if we all lived by it, what a happier world this would be!
So TODAY it will start with ME...