"True charity is love in action"

Wendy and I have put a priority on having read all of the last general conferences addresses together before the next conference. We, of course, read from the conference issue of the ENSIGN. Generally we do this while traveling in the car, she driving and me reading out loud. We stop at any point to discuss or comment on what we have just read in order to digest the material a little better. While in NC, traveling a lot, we usually finished a couple of months ahead of time.

With a little less driving required of us now, we announce that we finished reading all of the addresses including those from the General Relief Society Meeting, this morning as we drove to attend a session at the Provo temple. The very last talk was one of the best. It was by President Monson, entitled “Charity Never Faileth.”

He concluded with a very insightful definition of charity--“true charity is love in action.”

“Needed is the charity which refuses to find satisfaction in hearing or in repeating the reports of misfortunes that come to others, unless by so doing, the unfortunate one may be benefited... Charity is having patience with someone who has let us down. It is resisting the impulse to become offended easily. It is accepting weaknesses and shortcomings. It is accepting people as they truly are. It is looking beyond physical appearances to attributes that will not dim through time. It is resisting the impulse to categorize others.”

So well stated. I hope I can live this commandment better.

We look forward to General Conference weekend. I wonder what the important themes and messages will be this time. We will be together as a family on Sunday evening at Matthew and Kim’s, to share our understandings of the things we heard. I hope that we can get some input, by phone, from Valerie’s and David’s families also.