Charity is the opposite of pride

Moroni 7:47-48:

47 But charity is the pure love of Christ, and it endureth forever; and whoso is found possessed of it at the last day, it shall be well with him.

48 Wherefore, my beloved brethren, pray unto the Father with all the energy of heart, that ye may be filled with this love, which he hath bestowed upon all who are true followers of his Son, Jesus Christ; that ye may become the sons of God; that when he shall appear we shall be like him, for we shall see him as he is; that we may have this hope; that we may be purified even as he is pure. Amen.

I heard this scripture in a talk at Church one Sunday. Two things that I learned about charity from the talk:
1- Having charity allows us to realize our heritage ("that ye may become the sons [and daughters] of God")
2- Charity is the opposite of pride and may be measured like the scale on the right:


It is my prayer that we will all keep the charitometer needle moving toward the charity side.

Chastening can be hard to take

Doctrine and Covenants 101:4-5 -

4 Therefore, they must needs be chastened and tried, even as Abraham, who was commanded to offer up his only son.

5 For all those who will not endure chastening, but deny me, cannot be sanctified.

I'm posting this passage for me mostly--I have to remember that chastening by the Lord is good, as long as I learn from it. To me, chastening is like receiving a *big* dose of humility. That is not an easy concept to learn. Many of the early apostles didn't learn it at first, so it must be hard. It seems to me that one of the signs of a truly mature person is that they can take constructive criticism without becoming defensive. I'm still working on that, but it is getting easier as I get older.

The "Read the Instructions" Poster

This is the poster I referred to in my initial entry.

What's behind the blog?

"Read the Instructions" refers to an insert in "The New Era," a magazine for LDS youth. The poster contains a photo of an open set of scriptures with various hand tools around it. The full text is:

Before all else fails, READ THE INSTRUCTIONS. (See Mosiah 1:6-7)

I plan to use this blog as a place to add my thoughts on various passages of scripture. I may end up with more than that, but that will be the blog's main purpose.