The importance of love


Recommended Posts

Im finishing off my preparations for tomorrow's Priesthood lesson. The rather wordy objective of the lesson is "To encourage the brethren to develop a greater willingness and ability to feel and show love by helping them understand how important love is and how greater love can be developed." To inform the discussion tomorrow I'm very interested in hearing responses to this question:

What do you do or not to that makes it both more likely, and less likely, that you will feel God’s love for you and what do you do or not do that makes it both more likely, and less likely, that you will feel and show love for His children?      

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Yeah, that's pretty wordy indeed.  Let's break it down.

1 hour ago, askandanswer said:

To encourage the brethren

Target of the lesson:  The brethren

Quote

to develop a greater willingness and ability to feel and show love

Goal: develop both willingness and ability... to feel and SHOW love

Quote

by helping them understand how important love is and how greater love can be developed."

Method:  Two-fold.  help them (the brethren) understand...

  • how important love is
  • how greater love can be developed.

So, to your question: The Sunday School answer (which is correct, BTW):

Quote

Less Likely:  Sin, selfishness, lack of empathy, unforgiving attitude, ingratitude, inability to see the godliness in any of His children.

More likely: the opposite of all that.

But in a practical sense, a bit too high level to really be good advice to someone who's somewhat unfamiliar with all that.   So, what's more practical?

How about if we focus on the five love languages? I'm not completely sold on this idea that people have "their love language."  But I think he does a pretty good job of categorizing common methods of expressing love.  And maybe if we (men in particular) spent more time learning to exercise all five of these languages, then it would help them express that love to others and recognize it when others are expressing love to us.

Edited by Carborendum
Link to comment
Share on other sites

On 5/8/2020 at 3:40 PM, askandanswer said:

Im finishing off my preparations for tomorrow's Priesthood lesson. The rather wordy objective of the lesson is "To encourage the brethren to develop a greater willingness and ability to feel and show love by helping them understand how important love is and how greater love can be developed." To inform the discussion tomorrow I'm very interested in hearing responses to this question:

What do you do or not to that makes it both more likely, and less likely, that you will feel God’s love for you and what do you do or not do that makes it both more likely, and less likely, that you will feel and show love for His children?      

There are two main components to understanding the importance of love, and how love is increased in our hearts and mind:

1) Pray for the gift of charity (this is by far the main way love will increase) as it is a gift from God.

2) Overcome enmity, which can only be accomplished by a broken heart and contrite spirit.

For me, the hardest B-attitude is to bless them that curse you, or speak evil of you. That requires a selfless attitude, where truly one is not seeking his own. And that isn't me yet.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

On 5/8/2020 at 5:40 PM, askandanswer said:

Im finishing off my preparations for tomorrow's Priesthood lesson. The rather wordy objective of the lesson is "To encourage the brethren to develop a greater willingness and ability to feel and show love by helping them understand how important love is and how greater love can be developed." To inform the discussion tomorrow I'm very interested in hearing responses to this question:

What do you do or not to that makes it both more likely, and less likely, that you will feel God’s love for you and what do you do or not do that makes it both more likely, and less likely, that you will feel and show love for His children?      

Humility, faith and obedience make it more likely that I feel God's love and at the same time extend that to His children.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Join the conversation

You can post now and register later. If you have an account, sign in now to post with your account.
Note: Your post will require moderator approval before it will be visible.

Guest
Reply to this topic...

×   Pasted as rich text.   Paste as plain text instead

  Only 75 emoji are allowed.

×   Your link has been automatically embedded.   Display as a link instead

×   Your previous content has been restored.   Clear editor

×   You cannot paste images directly. Upload or insert images from URL.

Loading...
 Share