First thought, loving kindness/A little more grace

Perhaps in this post I am speaking to the choir a bit. I know that the media focuses only on the negative and I also know that most of us really feel that love is at the heart of our response. I'm also not saying in this post that we love and support sin, Christ didn't teach that and we shouldn't live that. But He did go against common ideas of His time, He spoke for the poor in heart and He always extended mercy. Part of our purpose in this life is learning how to take the Spirit as our guide, and the Spirit can teach us how to share love and mercy, through grace and we could all use a little more grace on this earth and in this life.

We are called to be a peculiar people, to stand out from the world in new and happy ways. I used to think a whole lot about this statement and I do still think that this is a call to Zion, to take the Spirit as our guide, to embrace the things of heaven and less of the things of Babylon, but in order to do all of these things we need to embrace an attribute of Jesus Christ, the attribute of mercy. In order to build Zion, to follow the Spirit and leave Babylon we need to be merciful, for this is how we receive mercy and this is how we become like our Savior.

It seemed to me that a call to being different would require becoming perfect and that just seemed so overwhelming to me. Yet as I have pondered, read more about Christ and pondered on the work He did for us and looked at the world around us I realized that showing mercy is the major way we could be different from the world. One needs only to look at Facebook to see that mercy is not on the top of the priority list for many. So many times I see assumptions made, judgment passed and notices of condemnation go out. People who are seeking perfection only see the short comings in others and prey upon the weaknesses of others, this ought not to be. Our Savior was first and foremost a giver of love, a giver of second chances. Instead of assuming the worst of others, or placing unrealistic expectations, choose to love and choose to reach out in kindness to lift instead of reaching out in indignation.

We all want to be ready to see our Savior when He comes again, we all fear being deceived, we all fear different things that are happening in the mortal world at this time, but getting on a high horse or letting fear speak for us do not show us as disciples of Christ who trust their Lord and Savior to speak for them and to offer love to all. He is our Advocate with the Father for He is the one person who felt who we are, He understands motives and effort levels and He delights in being merciful.

Let us learn to be like our Savior and find joy in mercy instead of in judgment and to learn kindness as our first word instead of our after thought. Let us be a peculiar people, a people who's first thought is loving kindness.