The Lifting Power of Love – Sunday, June 13, 1982
One of the greatest messages the Savior taught and exemplified was love. Not only is he lover of our souls—did he love us enough to die for us—but he taught we should love one another. What power there is in that admonishment.
What power there is in love. Love poured out upon a wasted, wilted life can make it bloom as beautifully as water does the thirsty flowers of the desert.
People privileged to develop in a climate of love become securely rooted in a sense of their own worth and abilities.
Love begets in us an honest acceptance of ourselves and our fellow human beings. We begin to see beyond our faults and frailties to the potential perfection that is in each of us.
Carl Sandburg wrote,
“I love you for what you are, but I love you yet more for what you are going to be.
I love you not so much for your realities as for your ideals. . .
Not always shall you be what you are now. You are going forward toward something great. I am on the way with you and therefore I love you.”1
We are all going forward toward something great. We need not fear the forces that would try to hold us back whether they are forces from without or from within our own timid souls.
“There is no fear in love”; said the Apostle John, “but perfect love casteth out fear.”2
We need to trust the gentle pulling power of love that draws us upward toward the Lord.
And we need to show our gratitude to Him by stretching out our hands in love to lift the lives of others.
We need to love our neighbor and ourselves and God . . . For only as we love all three can we become what we can be.
1 Sandburg, Carl, “I Love You,” in One Thousand Beautiful Things, Marjories Barrows Camp. Hawthorn Books, Inc., New York, 1957, p. 347.
2 New Testament, I John, 4:18.
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June 13, 1982
Broadcast Number 2,756