When the Apostle Paul visited Thessalonica he counselled
them to improve in several areas, including but not limited to:
- · Increase and abound in love one toward another. 1Thes 3:12
- · Increase in spiritual strength and follow the example of the apostles. 1Thes 4:1
- · Abstain from fornication, or immorality. 4:3
- · That no man go beyond and defraud his brother in any matter. 4:6
- · Increase your love for others. 4:9-10
- · Work hard, tend to your own business. 4:11; 2 Thes 3:11
- · Prayer. 2 Thes 3:1
- · Love God and wait patiently for Christ. 3:5
- · Choose your friends carefully, have good associations. 3:6
The three points that stood out to me are to increase and
abound in love one toward another, Choose your friends carefully, and work
hard, tend to your own business.
It is not always easy to love everyone, and sometimes I just
don’t want to be around certain people which is OK, as long as I can still love
those people. We can love others with Christ-like love and not be best friends
with them. I think we get in trouble when we forget that everyone is a child of
God. Even those we don’t really like to be around. So my plan for loving others
more is to treat everyone with respect and kindness. I can’t deny someone
common curtesy if I want to follow this counsel of Paul. This would include
gossip and making judgments based on too little information.
In connection with loving others is the counsel to choose
your friends carefully. The verse says this: “…withdraw yourselves from every
brother that walketh disorderly, and not after the tradition which he received
us of.” While loving others, we have to make intermediate judgments about those
we will spend our time with after we have collected enough “data” to do so. If
we associate regularly with those whose basic philosophies on life are far
removed from the gospel then we are in danger of losing our way. Elder Dallin
H. Oaks taught,
The Savior also commanded individuals
to be judges, both of circumstances and of other people. Through the prophet Moses
the lord commanded Israel, ‘Ye shall do no unrighteousness in judgment: thou
shalt not respect the person of the poor, nor honour the person of the mighty:
but in righteousness shalt thou judge they neighbor’ (Leviticus 19:15).
On one occasion the Savior chided
the people, ‘Judge ye not what is right?’ (Luke 12:57). On another occasion he
said, ‘Judge not according to the appearance, but judge righteous judgment’
(John 7:24).
We must, of course, make judgments
every day in the exercise of our moral agency, but we must be careful that our judgments
of people are intermediate and not final (Judge Not and Judging,
speeches.byu.edu).
We must allow others the use of the atonement and offer
forgiveness as we’ve been commanded. Choosing who you will spend time with
should be done with these ideas in mind.
Work hard and tend to your business. I took this literally
and plan to work hard in my business. I am starting a company that needs a lot
of hard work and time to get rolling. I am making moderate progress, but if I
want to reach my goal of not working outside the home for someone else, and
working full time in my own business, I need to commit time and effort so that
I might be able to contribute to the welfare of our family in partnership with
my husband. Eventually we will both be full time in our own company and that
will be a day we will celebrate.
No comments:
Post a Comment