Love One Another: By Roy Tialavea

One of the simplest, yet hardest commandments of the lord is to “love one another.” At different times in my life I find it incredibly hard to love my brothers and sisters,but at other times, they are my light in this world and I love them with all my heart. As we all share love and peace through everyone we come in contact with, we begin to make this world a better place. If we can heed to this simple teaching, our lives and more importantly the lives of others will be eternally blessed.
A very important component of spreading love is maintaining love at home. In the church hymn “Love at Home,” the blessings of love at home are expressed, “There is beauty all around,
When there’s love at home;
There is joy in ev’rysound,
When there’s love at home.
Peace and plenty here abide,
Smiling sweet on ev’ryside.
Time doth softly, sweetly glide,
When there’s love at home.
Love at home, love at home;
Time doth softly, sweetly glide,
When there’s love at home.” This is the blessing of obtaining love at home throughout our families. Growing up with five older sisters and an older brother, I know through my own experiences that this can be difficult. Whether it is fighting over the remote, to who has to clean this, who broke this, or whose fault it was, there are always arguments that are hard to steer clear of. These little disagreements are all examples of contention.
Now on speaking of contention the resurrected Lord Himself declared, “For verily, verily I say unto you, he that hath the spirit of contention is not of me, but is of the devil, who is the father of contention, and he stirreth up the hearts of men to contend with anger, one with another”(2). One can take from this teaching that every time we feel angry and each time we look to argue with one another, instead of drawing closer to our lord and savior we are drawing closer to the devil. The opposite of contention therein is love and if we can look to love one another in times of contention we will have overcome the devil himself.
In his instructions to the Nephites, the Savior taught, “Therefore, all things whatsoever ye would that men should do to you, do ye even so to them” (3). This teaches us that even as we seek love from others we must practice love to all others. If every human being were to practice this golden rule, earth would become close to perfection, but in the book of Mosiah we learn that “the natural man is an enemy to god.” Therefore it is only when one “yields to the enticings of the Holy Spirit, and putteth off the natural man” and learns to be “submissive, meek, humble, patient, [and] full of love” that one can learn to love all (4). Therefore we must humble ourselves before god with a broken heart and a contrite spirit to find love in all.
Love, like most things in life, cannot truly grow unless it is expressed regularly. Growing up as an adolescent around the age of 13, I sort of took for granted those that I loved and did not regularly tell them that I loved them. By the words of the great English Poet William Shakspeare, “They do not love that do not show their love.”This great quote states that love is not really love unless it is shown and expressed to one another. Progressing as a person throughout my teen years I learned that I need to express my gratitude and love to all those that I love without holding anything back. Every time I talk to one of my family members I make sure I tell them that I love them and each time I do I can tell that it makes their day just a little bit better. As Latter-Day Saints we are all striving to be like Jesus in every endeavor we embark upon. By expressing our love to all we set forth on a direct path towards becoming more and more like our lord and Savior Jesus Christ.

1.) “294: Love at Home,” Hymns of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints
2.) (3 Ne. 11:29)
3.) (3 Ne. 14:12)
4.) (Mosiah 3:19)