“Love is the only force capable of transforming an enemy into friend.” - Martin Luther King Jr.
“It is easy enough to be friendly to one’s friends. But to befriend the one who regards himself as your enemy is the quintessence of true religion. The other is mere business.” - Gandhi
It has been a rough couple of days around here...but that usually signals some great growth opportunities. It made me search through a lot of reading and material and the idea of Matt: 5:44 kept coming to my mind. The scripture says...
"But I say unto you, Love your enemies, bless them that curse you, do good to them that hate you, and pray for them which despitefully use you, and persecute you;"
I guess I am feeling pretty hated, being cursed and persecuted, so the scripture hits pretty close to home and my heart has been swelling since I read it. I then began a study of what it means to love those that hate, despise, persecute, or just don't want you around. The answer when I found it was so simple.
It's in our spiritual DNA!!! Just like everything else, LOVE, is our divine nature. Go with me on this one. In the book, "The Infinite Atonement," we learn that just as we are made with the genetic makeup or our earthly biological parents, so too we are made with the spiritual makeup of our Heavenly parents. Now let that sink in for a minute. If, just as we receive physical attributes from our parents here, we receive our spiritual code from God himself. That seems logical to me. Just as a puppy will never grow up to be a cow, but a dog, we are built to become spiritually like God himself.
So here we go... If God and the Savior love us even after we have hurt them and we have their spiritual makeup, then we too can love our enemies.
President Monson said this in a talk about loving others..."Who is my neighbor? Someone asked that question, then answered it: “I don’t know his name, but his dog tramples down my flowers. His boy honks the horn and keeps me awake at night, and his children make so much noise I can’t enjoy life. But yesterday I noticed some black crepe at his window, and I knew that someone had passed away. I decided it was time I became acquainted with my neighbor. Let us not wait for that type of event before we become acquainted with our neighbor and show love for him or for her."
Choose to transform your relationships. Commit to yourself that you will choose differently now. You will choose Love over fear. Choose your divine nature that you can love those who are the hardest to love, who have hurt you, and who need it the most. Be God-like as your spiritual nature and makeup have created you to be. You are great. Choose to go beyond just feeling okay about someone, look at things from their perspective, feel their hurt, have compassion, and open your heart. I'm not saying to walk into dangerous paths if they have tendencies to hurt you such as physical abuse, I'm saying develop the kindred connection that binds us together as a family through God. Pray for them, serve them, do good to them, try and understand them, love them as God would.
No comments:
Post a Comment