Love One Another

Easter Sunday I was invited to eat Easter dinner at my bishops house. I of course had my own family that I could spend time with, but unfortunately I had church during the times that they were getting together :( If only all of my family attended church. We'd never have that problem again! Now as we're sitting at the dinner table with my bishop, his entire family, and my relief society president, Jillian, my bishop looks at me & says, "Sydney, when was the last time you gave a talk?" Now Jillian being a good friend tried to deflect the topic, but Bishop Walton didn't give up that easily. He again asked me & I told him that I had never been asked to give a talk. It's probably because I'm usually active for a few months & then get sidetracked by silly boys. Not this time. I'm in it for the long run! I'm now going to post the talk that I wrote for sacrament meeting today. I hope that it inspires you all and I hope that the spirit will touch you as you read this talk. I put my heart and soul into it. It wasn't just something that I threw together. The spirit definitely lead me to write what I did. I hope that you enjoy my talk :)

Good afternoon my dear brothers & sisters. For all of those who don’t know me, my name is Sydney Hernandez. I’ve been asked to speak today on loving one another. I’d just like to start off my talk with 1 piece of advice. When Bishop Walton asks you the last time you spoke in sacrament was, run away. I just barely got over being nervous to pray in front of people & now here I am giving a talk in sacrament. Now I know we’re all familiar with the commandments, but one of the commandments that we often overlook is one of the most important. In John 13:34-35 it says, “A new commandment I give unto you, That ye love one another; as I have loved you, that ye also love one another.  By this shall all men know that they are my disciples, if ye have love one to another. In preparation for this talk I read at least 7 talks, & numerous scriptures. To sum up what I gathered from all of that was simple. It was the same thing my dad taught me as a little girl. Treat others the way you’d like to be treated. As a 22 year old young woman in the LDS church I’ve adapted that saying just a tiny bit. Treat people the way that Christ would treat you. He wouldn’t say hurtful things to you, he wouldn’t be mean to you, he wouldn’t make you sad. He would uplift you and love you.  We’ve all been the new person in a ward. We’ve all been on the receiving end of a bad situation. We’ve all had hard times. We’ve all felt alone. There’s absolutely no need for that when we’re all members of the same beautiful church. The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints. Our church is built upon on a foundation of love. We’ve all been blessed with the gift to uplift and love our fellow man. At times it may be difficult to love members of your ward, your friends, certain family members, or even acquaintances, but ask yourself this question. Is there anyone that Christ doesn’t love? As Elder Holland has said before, “Now loving others as Christ would will not come without effort and it doesn’t come without patience, but, like salvation itself, in the end it is a gift, given by God to the “true followers of his Son, Jesus Christ.” I have numerous friends that are always constantly so Christ like. I look at them all of the time and think to myself, how the heck do you do it?  I’m constantly learning things from them. They’re fantastic examples. With that said we need to lead by example. We need to be the light. I read a quote the other day that said “Lighthouses don’t go running all over an island looking for boats to save; They just stand there shining. As Robert J. Whetten wrote in his talk, “True Followers” he said “How He lived His life is the example we should follow. His way should be our way. “Therefore, what manner of men ought ye to be? Verily I say unto you, even as I am.” ⁵ He showed us that we must go about doing good, that the spiritual and physical welfare of our fellowmen is as important as our own, and that we should show genuine concern and compassion for all of our Heavenly Father’s children. Moroni defines Christlike love as charity. “And now I know that this love which thou hast had for the children of men is charity; wherefore, except men shall have charity they cannot inherit that place which thou hast prepared in the mansions of thy Father.” ⁶ It’s not enough to say we believe and that we love Him; we must be found possessed with His kind of love for others at that last day. It is not necessary for us to lay down our life for others as He did, but like the Savior, we should bless the lives of others by giving of what our life is made up of—our time, our talents, our means, and ourselves. We must rejoice with those who rejoice, and weep with those who weep. We can apply these principles to our own ward family. We need to reach out to those who aren’t here. Reach out to those within our ward that we know are having a difficult time or need extra encouragement and love. One way to accomplish this is doing our home and visiting teaching with genuine love & finding ways to serve them. We all have our hard times and when we have those around us that love us we know it’ll be a little easier to get through. As we serve and love the members of our ward, it builds unity. As Christ said in D & C 38: 27 I say unto you be one and if ye are not one ye are not mine. As we love each other we grow in unity and strength and become united as one in Christ. I extend a challenge to all of you. I ask you to reach out to at least 2 people this week. Get to know them. Be genuinely interested in them & their lives. Build a friendship with them upon a foundation of love. It will bless your life and theirs.