The past several months have been filled with lots of activities and projects. My Relief Society presidency and I had the chance to attend 10 ward conferences in our stake through March, April and May. It was a great opportunity to hear each Bishop share their thoughts with their ward members about the theme of the conference which was taken from Matthew 22: 36-40:
Master, which is great commandment in the law? Jesus said unto him, thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all they mind. This is the first and great commandment. And the second is like unto it, thou shalt love thy neighbor as thyself. On these two commandments hang all the law and the prophets.
Our stake president also spoke and shared his thoughts and invited a member of each of the women's auxiliaries to share their thoughts as well. I learned so much listening to different people share their thoughts on loving God, loving our neighbors and loving ourselves. Everything we do hangs on these two commandments. The importance of these verses from the scriptures cannot be overstated.
If we truly love God, our lives are changed. We are different people. We make choices that will please Him. We follow his example and his commandments. We live our lives in ways that show our love for Him. As we master this love of God, we can't help but feel more inclined to love our neighbor. Our hearts are changed and we look outward more than looking inward. If we feel good about ourselves and are striving to improve our lives, we are more apt to forget ourselves and think of others. I like to think of these concepts as forming a triangle. At the top of the triangle is love of God, with the base being love of self and love of our neighbors. These three important loves support and fuel one another. If one part of the triangle is weak, the entire structure isn't as strong as it could be.
When I spoke in ward conference I shared a story from my youth. It goes like this: I was an awkward, gangly girl in my teenage years. I was very tall, terribly skinny, had very crooked teeth, wore glasses, had a very short Twiggy haircut, severe acne, a big nose and not much confidence. I felt very sorry for myself because I wasn't like my older sisters who had boyfriends and I had none. I didn't have any dates and my self confidence was very low. I would often listen to Karen Carpenter sing "Rainy Days and Mondays" on my record player and cry myself to sleep. My thoughts were all about me and what I didn't have.
One day my wise father came into my room during a crying spell and said something that changed my life. He said: Von, write a list of the things you can change about yourself down on a piece of paper and the things you can't change about yourself on another piece of paper. Throw the piece of paper away that contains the list of things you cannot change (such things as my height, my big nose, etc.) Go to work changing some of the things that are within your control and let the other things you can't change go from your life. He told me that I was a late bloomer like him and that if I worked on what I could change, and not worry about what I couldn't, my life would change for the better. He told me he would help me by paying for braces for my teeth and I decided to work all summer thinning beets to earn enough money to buy contact lenses. Gradually, things started to change and my self confidence started to grow. By the end of high school I had a date! I was voted president of the Service Club and had a leadership position in our stake youth group. I found that I was good at organizing things. As I worked on the things in my life I had control over, my life improved, as did my self confidence. My love of self was necessary so that I could move beyond my continual thoughts of self to thoughts of others. As my self confidence improved, so did my ability to see beyond myself to the needs of others. As I served and forgot about myself, I found great joy in being of service and my inward thoughts turned outward. My love of God grew as I loved his children and sought to help where I could. As I "forgot myself and went to work" my triangle grew stronger. I served an LDS mission to Argentina that helped my spiritual maturity and the strength and power of my triangle. I sought to please my Heavenly Father and not think so much about what people thought of my outward appearance or of me personally. I seized control of the things I could change and let go of the rest.
All the laws and the teachings of the prophets hang on these principles. Love. Love. Love.
