The Great Commandment

My thoughts on Elder Wirthlin's talk "The Great Commandment"

I read this in sacrament meeting on Sunday and his words have raced through my head and now they are all jumbled up. I hope I can articulate what I’m thinking.

I have a Visiting Teaching breakfast I have to do for my ward in about 30 days. I’ve had this assignment for about 2 months and every suggestion that I was given by my RS president just didn’t sit well with me. I didn’t want to mock the VT program and I didn’t want to play a guilt trip on those sisters who through no fault of their own struggle with the assignments given to them. After reading this talk I know what I’m going to do. Visiting Teaching is about LOVE.
He says:
Brethren and sisters, as you prayerfully consider what you can do to increase harmony, spirituality, and build up the kingdom of God, consider your sacred duty to teach others to love the Lord and their fellowman. This is the central object of our existence. Without charity—or the pure love of Christ—whatever else we accomplish matters little. With it, all else becomes vibrant and alive.
When we inspire and teach others to fill their hearts with love, obedience flows from the inside out in voluntary acts of self-sacrifice and service. Yes, those who go home teaching out of duty, for example, may fulfill their obligation. But those who home teach out of genuine love for the Lord and for their fellowman will likely approach that task with a very different attitude.
(Of course change the word “home” to “visit”)

Now it how do we show that love? I believe it starts at home and becomes a habit. That is what we are going to work on at our house. We are going to work on showing love to our fellow family members. Hopefully that will extend to those we home and visit teach.

That will be hard, but we are going to do it!