My thoughts this morning come from President Oaks’ April 2026 General Conference talk as well as Alma 4. I’m always fascinated when teachings separated by centuries somehow find their way to the same place. Today, for me, that place was learning to see others as God sees them.
The world we live in can be toxic. We see contempt and hostility toward adversaries everywhere. What is an adversary? The dictionary wasn’t as much help as I expected. Basically, an adversary seems to be anyone who doesn’t agree with me. Hmmm.
The bottom line of Jesus’ teaching is love—love God and love our neighbor. Love isn’t necessarily my issue. Dealing with the differences is.
President David O. McKay taught, “There is no better way to manifest love for God than to show an unselfish love for one’s fellow men.”
I promise I don’t have animosity toward my neighbor, but his naughty little chicken is creating work for us as she searches our mulch for bugs. Does President Oaks tell us how to take care of this problem with love? Probably by dealing with it peacefully. We keep cleaning up the mess and joke about eating fried chicken soon.
President Oaks told of a nurse caring for a cantankerous man in a maximum-security hospital. Beneath his repulsive behavior was a man who just wanted to go home. Somehow she felt a love for him that could only be explained as the love of God. She saw this difficult man as His child.
Maybe that is where we all need to go in our hearts when there is conflict. What burdens does our adversary carry? Would our attitude change if we exercised the pure love of Christ?
Abraham Lincoln reportedly said, “The best way to destroy an enemy is to make him a friend.”
I like that.
I never know where I’m going with my study time. Now I’m in Alma 4.
After years of war and suffering, the Nephites remembered God, thousands joined the Church, peace returned—and prosperity followed. Unfortunately, pride followed prosperity. Mormon describes contention, envy, strife, malice, persecutions and pride.
Today? Sometimes that sounds like our daily diet.
In 2021 I wrote this in the margin beside these verses:
“Interesting that he says ‘pride of their eyes.’ What causes us to be prideful in the first place? When we see the disparity of what we have vs. what others have is when we become prideful—or when we become envious, I would suppose. These are both evil twin sisters. This would be a good reason to pray that we see others as they are seen by the Lord.... We are all brothers and sisters of our Heavenly Father. He loves all of His children. We know this; we believe this! We need to see as Heavenly Father sees!”
It still applies today.
While some of Alma’s people were lifting themselves up in pride, others were humbling themselves, caring for the needy and finding joy in serving despite their own afflictions.
The contention became so serious that Alma turned the affairs of government over to Nephihah so he could devote himself to preaching the word of God and “bearing down in pure testimony.” Apparently, Alma understood that the real problem wasn’t political. It was in the hearts of the people.
And that brings me right back to President Oaks.
Maybe peacemaking begins when we learn to see as Heavenly Father sees—the burden behind the behavior, the child of God behind the adversary, and a brother or sister instead of someone who needs to be defeated.
Perhaps Lincoln had it right. The best way to get rid of an enemy may be to make him a friend.
Jesus Christ showed us how.
No comments:
Post a Comment