hapilly ever after

I totally loved President Monson's talk in the General Relief Society Meeting tonight.  I found some highlights from the meeting on lds.org, and I love them so much, that I want to record them for posterity. (By the way I wasn't trying to be silly, and posting about the broadcast on multiple mediums.  I posted on FB because I thought it was a short post of I loved this.  Then realized hey the church already pulled out my favorite quotes, lets save them in my next blog book. So sorry for the repeat.)

Each of You Is Unique

My dear sisters, each of you is unique. You are different from each other in many ways. There are those of you who are married. Some of you stay at home with your children, while others of you work outside your homes. Some of you are empty-nesters. There are those of you who are married but do not have children. There are those who are divorced, those who are widowed. Many of you are single women. Some of you have college degrees; some of you do not. There are those who can afford the latest fashions and those who are lucky to have one appropriate Sunday outfit. Such differences are almost endless. Do these differences tempt us to judge one another?

Mother Teresa, a Catholic nun who worked among the poor in India most of her life, spoke this profound truth: “If you judge people, you have no time to love them.” The Savior has admonished, “This is my commandment, That ye love one another, as I have loved you.” I ask:Can we love one another, as the Savior has commanded, if we judge each other? And I answer—with Mother Teresa—“No; we cannot.”

—President Thomas S. Monson

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Charity: The Pure Love of Christ

I have always loved your Relief Society motto, Charity never faileth. What is charity? The prophet Mormon teaches us that “charity is the pure love of Christ.” In his farewell message to the Lamanites, Moroni declared, “Except ye have charity, ye can in nowise be saved in the kingdom of God.”

I consider charity—or the “pure love of Christ”—to be the opposite of criticism and judging. In speaking of charity, I do not at this moment have in mind the relief of the suffering through the giving of our substance. That, of course, is necessary and proper. Tonight, however, I have in mind the charity that manifests itself when we are tolerant of others and lenient toward their actions; the kind of charity that forgives; the kind of charity that is patient.

—President Thomas S. Monson

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Charity Needed Everywhere

There is a serious need for the charity that gives attention to those who are unnoticed, hope to those who are discouraged, aid to those who are afflicted. True charity is love in action. The need for charity is everywhere.

Needed is the charity which refuses to find satisfaction in hearing or in repeating the reports of misfortunes that come to others, unless by so doing the unfortunate one may be benefitted. The American educator and politician Horace Mann once said, “To pity distress is but human; to relieve it is Godlike.”

Charity is having patience with someone who has let us down; it is resisting the impulse to become offended easily. It is accepting weaknesses and shortcomings. It is accepting people as they truly are. It is looking beyond physical appearances to attributes that will not dim through time. It is resisting the impulse to categorize others.

—President Thomas S. Monson

I especially like "Charity is having patience with someone who has let us down" I needed this talk, the other day in the temple I was once again "inspired", that I need to stop speaking guile.

I also liked Sister Babara Thompson's because I love visiting teaching.  I know that makes me a nerd, that I like the thing that most American women in the church "make time for" because they are so busy or what not. But I love it.  A former ward Relief Society President of mine said, its the only time we schedule friendship.