My first talk

It's CHRISTMAS EVE! So great. We had a Christmas party for the ward, which was awesome. We ate sarmale (cabbage rolls), bread (naturally), mashed potatoes, and some pretty delicious desserts. There were songs, Santa (Mos Craciun), and people enjoying celebrating the birth of Christ. In all, it was a pretty amazing day.

I gave my first talk last Sunday, the 16^th.  I prayed and prayed and did my pondering thing. I like to think, and I decided, the Spirit was telling me to talk about charity… one of my favorite topics. 

What I really wanted to discuss was how great charity is. Forget about the ten commandments and all the rules. When it comes down to it, what really matters is what kind of love you have. Remember what Christ said, the greatest commandment is to love God and the second is to love everyone else. Brilliant! Why are those so important, and why didn't He really say any other commandments? If we really want to be like Christ or like Heavenly Father we have to have unselfish love, or charity. Everything they have done, do, or will do is for us. When Christ was baptized, he needed fulfilled the commandment to be an example for us. Or, more simply, showing us what a perfect life looks like.

The most important characteristic Christ or God possess is charity, and if we truly want to be like them, we need it too. All other things will follow: honesty, faith, knowledge, diligence, etc. Thus, charity is the most important and trumps all other Christ-like characteristics. It's the simplest response with the hardest answer. It's easy to say all we need to have is charity, but, it's hard to have charity. Loving people who you don't like, who are mean to you, or who are just awful people is hard. But, you have to do your best to have Christ-like love. That includes finding ways to do little things and big things for others. Little things may not seem to make a very big difference, but it's the little things that we usually remember - they are more personal. If we do everything out of love, our lives will be better because we are able to find true happiness. It's a pretty amazing thing. I love it!