Love. Neighbors, Friends, Everyone.

I apologize for the long delay between posts. It as been a sequence of busy weeks leading up to Easter between birthdays, speech and debate and MUN. I hope this post makes up for the wait. I feel that it is one of the more uplifting ones I have written.

Enjoy!

About a week ago, on a Friday night I had an interesting conversation with some of my friends from speech. We talked about our beliefs and our thoughts about life. During this conversation everyone was civil, nobody argued about who was right, everyone had a chance to speak about their beliefs.

For me it was a great missionary moment. I was able to talk about the church to people who knew a little about my beliefs, and clear up some misconceptions about the church. I also learned a lot about my friends.

The thing that was most important to me about that conversation was the respect and love we gave to each other.

It takes courage to listen to someone else's beliefs without a whit of criticism. It takes a respect for the other person to  willing to listen with an open mind about whatever they believe. I'm glad we were able to speak openly as a group.

I want to talk about having love for others. 

Love is not agreeing with everything another person says, nor is it just a bond between family members.  Love is accepting others whether or not you agree with them.

When we love another person, we respect their ideas and their ideals. Our respect comes without judgment, though we may not always agree with what they believe or say.

In Matthew 22: 37-39 we read "Thou shalt love the lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy mind.  This is the first and great commandment.  And the second is like unto it, Thou shalt love thy neighbor as thyself."

Christ taught us to love one another, and what better way to show it than to give respect. In that hotel room where we all had varying beliefs about the world and religion and man.  I was impressed by the respect in that room, and am glad to be able to be able to call those there my friends.

Show everyone you know that you love them by respecting their idea's and beliefs. I have found few better ways to show love than by proving it in this way.