I was reading tonight from the New Era the words of President Hinckley.  He said, “The Church may call upon you to make sacrifice.  It may call upon you to give of the very best that you have to offer.  There will be no cost in this, because you will discover that it will become an investment that will pay you dividends for as long as you live.  The Church is the great reservoir of eternal truth.  Embrace it and hold fast to it.”

 For some reason it brought to my rememberance the testimony meeting we had at the end of girls camp this year.  One of the young women said something that I don’t think I’ll ever forget.  She said that we know who we are and where we are from and what we need to do in order to get to where we want to go.  But sometimes we do stupid things.  We don’t necessarily do them on purpose, we just do them – it’s our nature.  Just because we may do something stupid, however, doesn’t mean that we are suddenly bad people.  It just means that we made a mistake.

We know a few things: 1. We will make mistakes.  There’s no way around that.  2. Heavenly Father knows the intent of our hearts.  3. We are God’s children and are loved by him on a level that we cannot comprehend.  So, if Heavenly Father knows the intent of our hearts, then he knows that we are trying so hard to be as good as we can be.  He knows that we know what we should and shouldn’t do.  He also knows that we are not perfect but are striving to become perfect.  He loves us too much to leave us to figure it out on our own and has given us tools in order to find our way back home and to help us in the things which we are called to do during our time here on earth.  These tools include the scriptures, prophets, apostles, teachers and each other.

We know that we have been put on the earth to be tested.  We weren’t put here by ourselves – one at a time.  We were put here together.  The purpose of being here together is to help one another get through the difficulties of life.  “Mourn with those that mourn”, “comfort those that stand in need of comfort.” 

Some people are easier to love than others.  How easy to love are you?