Love

At the time of writing this I have just been involved in the funeral and saying goodbye to my mother, who passed away on the 28th February.

I have been surrounded by family and friends who have known and loved my mum at some point in their lives, and who came to express sympathy to us and farewell her with us. The outpouring and expression of love from so many people was overwhelming and as a family we have felt the spirit close at a time full of emotional turmoil.

As a family we were raised with love, and learned to love each other, and others. We have been taught to not judge others by how they looked. We were unaware at the time that this was teaching us Christ-like love and we have become friends with people that many others would have shunned.

Love is Family and Family is Love. The words should be synonymous and in our family it was. Like all families we had our ups and downs and in and outs but Love was always something that overcame all of the trials and troubles.

I firmly believe in the words of the song, “What the world needs now is love sweet love, it’s the only thing that there’s just too little of…” Loving one another is the only way we can coexist as Christ would have us do. He who loved unfailingly; He loved the leper and the lame; He loved the rich and the poor, encourages and counsels us to do the likewise. We are all a part of the same family, the human family, and need to learn to love one another as He loves us. 

“Men give various reasons, but the real reason is that every person who comes to earth is a spirit son or daughter of God. Since all love emanates from God, we are born with the capacity and the desire to love and to be loved. One of the strongest connections we have with our premortal life is how much our Father and Jesus loved us and how much we loved Them” 

(The Power of God’s Love, Elder John H. Groberg).

By Toni Paton