fill our hearts with greater charity

As followers of Jesus Christ, we should lead the way as peacemakers. As charity becomes part of our nature, we will lose the impulse to demean others. We will stop judging others. We will have charity for those from all walks of life. Charity towards all men is essential to our progress. Charity is the foundation of a godly character.

Let us plead with our Heavenly Father to fill our hearts with greater charity—especially for those who are difficult to love—for charity is a gift from our Heavenly Father for true followers of Jesus Christ. The Savior is the Prince of Peace. We are to be His instruments for peace.

Russell M. Nelson

"Confidence in the Presence of God", General Conference April 2025

confidence before God

When I speak of having confidence before God, I am referring to having confidence in approaching God right now! I am referring to praying with confidence that Heavenly Father hears us, that He understands our needs better than we do. I am referring to having confidence that He loves us more than we can comprehend, that He sends angels to be with us and with those we love. I am referring to having confidence that He yearns to help each of us reach our highest potential.

Now, how do we gain such confidence? The Lord answers this question with these words: “Let thy bowels … be full of charity towards all men, … and let virtue garnish thy thoughts unceasingly; then shall thy confidence wax strong in the presence of God.”

There’s the key! In the Lord’s own words, charity and virtue open the way to having confidence before God! Brothers and sisters, we can do this! Our confidence can truly wax strong in the presence of God, right now!

Russell M. Nelson

"Confidence in the Presence of God", General Conference April 2025

turned her loving concerns over to Heavenly Father

Years ago I received a phone call from a distraught mother. She told me that her daughter had moved far from home. She sensed from the little contact she had with her daughter that something was terribly wrong. She pleaded with me to help.

I found out who the daughter’s home teacher was. You can tell by that name that it was a long time ago. I called him. He was young. Yet he told me that he and his companion both had been awakened in the night with not only concern for the daughter but with inspiration that she was about to make choices that would bring sadness and misery. With only that inspiration of the Spirit, they went to see her.

At first she did not want to tell them about her situation. Under inspiration, they pleaded with her to repent and choose the path the Lord had for her. She realized then, I believe by the Spirit, that the only way they could have known what they knew about her life was from God. A mother turned her loving concerns over to Heavenly Father and the Savior. The Holy Ghost had been sent to those home teachers because they were willing to serve the Lord. They had followed the counsel and promise found in the Doctrine and Covenants:

“Let thy bowels also be full of charity towards all men, and to the household of faith, and let virtue garnish thy thoughts unceasingly; then shall thy confidence wax strong in the presence of God; and the doctrine of the priesthood shall distil upon thy soul as the dews from heaven.

“The Holy Ghost shall be thy constant companion, and thy scepter an unchanging scepter of righteousness and truth; and thy dominion shall be an everlasting dominion, and without compulsory means it shall flow unto thee forever and ever.”

Henry B. Eyring

"Our Constant Companion" General Conference October 2023

thy will be done

If you want to receive the companionship of the Holy Ghost, you must want it for the right reasons. Your purposes must be the Lord’s purposes. If your motives are too selfish, you will find it difficult to receive and sense the promptings of the Spirit.

The key for me and for you is to want what the Savior wants. Our motives need to be driven by the pure love of Christ. Our prayers need to be “All I want is what you want. Thy will be done.”

Henry B. Eyring

"Our Constant Companion" General Conference October 2023

out to the remote circumference

There is going to be some benevolence, as well as some malice, in your patient’s soul. The great thing is to direct the malice to his immediate neighbours whom he meets every day and to thrust his benevolence out to the remote circumference, to people he does not know. The malice thus becomes wholly real and the benevolence largely imaginary. There is no good at all in inflaming his hatred of Germans if, at the same time, a pernicious habit of charity is growing up between him and his mother, his employer, and the man he meets in the train. 

The Screwtape Letters by C. S. Lewis. 1942. p.28

he will not compel man to learn

God is man’s teacher. He seeks to develop goodness, wisdom, charity. He has placed upon himself one limitation: he will not compel man to learn. Man must reach out to receive all that God has to give. Even more, man must reach out to find it. All learning depends finally on the learner. I have always learned best what I wanted to learn; I have learned best when I was ready and eager to learn.



The Lord’s Question: Thoughts on the Life of Response by Dennis Rasmussen. Brigham Young University Press. April 1985. Chapter Seven, “Wherein Have I Wearied Thee?” p.71

extraordinarily giving people

Americans are, by any reasonable measure, extraordinarily giving people. We have given trillions upon trillions of dollars of our nation's wealth to the world's poorer people. And not always with strategic military or economic goals attached. Here at home, we provide government assistance to flood victims. Americans beset by fire damage, tornadoes and hurricanes. You can smoke all of your life and walk into a government-funded hospital and ask your fellow Americans to save your life. You can make the poorest nutritional choices known to mankind and get diabetes medication paid for by the government. You can go hiking in some crazy-ass, remote part of some national park and certain, caring fellow Americans will attempt to find you. People pay a lot of money in taxes here in America, but still find ways to give billions privately every year to help fight disease, care for the elderly, teach painting and dance, conserve precious open spaces, give scholarships on behalf of their alma mater, or send Girl Scout cookies to the troops. 

Alec Baldwin, "It's Time to Suck It Up and Pay Our Bill." Huffington Post. Posted: 7/29/11 08:09 PM ET

a great beauty secret

We have been taught that “the gift of the Holy Ghost … quickens all the intellectual faculties, increases, enlarges, expands and purifies all the natural passions and affections. … It inspires virtue, kindness, goodness, tenderness, gentleness and charity. It develops beauty of person, form and features.” Now, that is a great beauty secret!... Alma asks a penetrating question for each of us to consider: “Have [you] received his image in your countenances?”

Recently, a group of young women visited my office. At the end of the visit, one young woman confided with tears in her eyes, “I have never thought of myself as beautiful. I have always felt very ordinary. But today, as I walked past the mirror in your office and glanced into it, I was beautiful!” She was beautiful because her face shone with the Spirit. She saw herself as our Heavenly Father sees her. She had received His image in her countenance. That is deep beauty.



Elaine S. Dalton, "Remember Who You Are!" General Young Women Meeting, April 2010

canned-food mormons

I am deeply impressed by the way our Church members extend themselves to others. As we hear of your selfless sacrifice and overwhelming compassion, our hearts swell with gratitude and happiness. You are a shining light to the world, and you are known for your goodness and compassion all around the globe.


Unfortunately, from time to time we also hear of Church members who become discouraged and subsequently quit coming to and participating in our Church meetings because they think they don’t fit in.

When I was a young boy, during the aftermath of World War II, Germany was broken and in ruins. Many people were hungry, sick, and dying. I remember well the humanitarian shipments of food and clothing that came from the Church in Salt Lake City. To this day, I can still remember the smell of the clothing, and I can still taste the sweetness of the canned peaches.

There were some who joined the Church because of the goods they received at that time. Some members looked down on these new converts. They even called them an offensive name: Büchsen Mormonen, or “Canned-Food Mormons.” They resented these new members because they believed that once their temporal needs had been met, they would fall away.

While some did leave, many stayed—they came to church, tasted the sweetness of the gospel, and felt the tender embrace of caring brothers and sisters. They discovered “home.” And now, three and four generations later, many families trace their Church membership back to these converts.

I hope that we welcome and love all of God’s children, including those who might dress, look, speak, or just do things differently. It is not good to make others feel as though they are deficient. Let us lift those around us. Let us extend a welcoming hand. Let us bestow upon our brothers and sisters in the Church a special measure of humanity, compassion, and charity so that they feel, at long last, they have finally found home.

When we are tempted to judge, let us think of the Savior, who “loveth the world, even that he layeth down his own life that he may draw all men unto him. …



President Dieter F. Uchtdorf. “You Are My Hands.” General Conference, April 2010

family structures in Louisiana

Towns across Louisiana were burgeoning with evacuees. The city of Lafayette, for instance, population 110,000, took in 40,000 of them. Many, if not most, stayed with friends or relatives. It was not unusual for a family of four to take in eleven people. Had the hurricane been only a very bad storm, that might have been akin to a holiday gathering for the hosts and guests alike. But Katrina was a vicious and unending disintegration of society’s fabric. According to academics such as Carl A. Brasseaux, a professor of history at the University of Louisiana at Lafayette, the family networks that had remained strong in Louisiana were more important than any government aid in helping to ease the impact of the disaster. “If family structures in Louisiana,” he said, “had eroded to the point they have in many parts of the country, many refugees here would face a very long and bleak road ahead.”

The Great Deluge: Hurricane Katrina, New Orleans, and the Mississippi Gulf Coast by Douglas Brinkley. HarperCollins 2007. p. 434, 435

the ingeniousness of mankind becomes evident in times of need

Since my conversion and because of my World War II experiences, I now have a deep appreciation for the revealed plan of a year’s supply for each member.

Frequently I am asked, “What were the most valuable items in the days of starvation in Germany?” The answer is difficult to believe, because some of the experiences we had seem to be totally illogical and contrary to human nature. The items of highest value were tobacco and alcohol, because people who live in fear and despair, who have not learned principles of self-control, tend to need in times of panic some drug to escape the dreadful awareness of reality…

How fortunate we are as members of the Church that we learn to develop a feeling for the true values of life and the necessity of self-control, so that in times of need there will be no panic, but we will be prepared.

As for what we needed, the food item we relied on most was vegetable oil. With a bottle of vegetable oil, one could acquire nearly every other desirable item. It had such value that with a quart of vegetable oil one could probably trade for three bushels of apples or three hundred pounds of potatoes. Vegetable oil has a high calorie content, is easy to transport, and in cooking can give a tasty flavor to all kinds of food items that one would not normally consider as food—wild flowers, wild plants, and roots from shrubs and trees.

For me and my family, a high-quality vegetable oil has the highest priority in our food storage, both in times of daily use and for emergency usage. When vegetable oil is well-packed and stored appropriately, it has a long storage life without the necessity of refrigeration. We found ours to be in very good condition after twenty years of storage, but circumstances may vary…

The second highest priority item for me and my family is grain in all its forms, preferably wheat and rye. When grain is well-packed and well-preserved, it too is easy to transport, easy to store, and will last for generations.

A third priority item is honey. Its value in daily usage is immeasurable. My family prefers honey rather than sugar because our experience supports some of the research findings regarding the preeminence of honey. Another reason I prefer honey is because during the starvation period in postwar Germany, honey could be traded for three times as much as sugar; its value was considered that much greater… A fourth important food storage product is powdered milk…

When we think in terms of our own year’s supply… we may feel that every family will have to store everything… However, let me offer this comforting idea based on past experience. We need to take into consideration that in difficult times, so long as there survives more than one family, there will be trading of valuable items. A free market will begin immediately to satisfy the needs of people, and items in greatest demand will set the price, bypassing the use of money. The ingeniousness of mankind becomes evident in times of need.


F. Enzio Busche, “How Beautiful to Live in These Times and Be Prepared!,” Ensign, Jun 1982, 16 as found in Prophetic Statements on Food Storage for Latter-day Saints by Neil H. Leash. Cedar Fort. 1999. p.70, 71

the greatest of these is charity

1 Cor. 13:13 And now abideth faith, hope and charity, these three; but the greatest of these is charity.

Faith receives the promises of God as true… Hope, as an anchor of the soul, keeps it steadfast amid all the storms and temptations of life; but the exercise of faith and hope is limited to the present imperfect state. The one shall be exchanged for sight, and the other shall be swallowed up in fruition. Love is superior to both, as the end is greater than the means; as that which is unchangeable is superior to that which is transitory. (Lothian)

Faith and hope are our own: love is diffused among others. (Calvin)


Doctrine and Covenants Commentary by Hyrum M. Smith and Janne M. Sjodahl. Deseret Book. 1965. p.85

hope is critical to both faith and charity

The things we hope for are often future events... The things we hope in sustain us during our daily walk... Hope is critical to both faith and charity. When disobedience, disappointment, and procrastination erode faith, hope is there to uphold our faith. When frustration and impatience challenge charity, hope braces our resolve and urges us to care for our fellowmen even without expectation of reward. The brighter our hope, the greater our faith. The stronger our hope, the purer our charity. The things we hope for lead us to faith, while the things we hope in lead us to charity. The three qualities—faith, hope, and charity—working together, grounded on the truth and light of the restored gospel of Jesus Christ, lead us to abound in good works.


Dieter F. Uchtdorf, “The Infinite Power of Hope,” Ensign, Nov 2008, 21–24

poor and needy

There is a difference between being poor and being needy. The needy might lack money, employment, or some other temporal thing. It is usually easy to solve their need. The poor may be poor in spirit, manner, habits or lifestyle. If they are given money, food, or clothing, they may remain poor. They have difficulty handling their money or managing their homes. They are usually remiss in their church attendance. Their needs require assistance from compassionate people, and even then, a long healing process is often required. Jesus said, "Suffer the little children to come unto me, and forbid them not: for of such is the kingdom of God. . . . And he took them up in his arms, put his hands upon them, and blessed them" (Mark 10:14, 16). The poor of the Church are in some ways like little children. They may be unwise in their judgement, easily distracted, and a little self-centered. Even their faith is like a child's - they go to their bishop when thay have a need and expect to get just what they ask for. They are usually unaware of their own responsibilities. The poor of the Church need leaders who are understanding and patient. Charity, the pure love of Christ, must be in the heart of every bishop and Relief Society president. 

Glen L. Rudd

Pure Religion: The Story of Church Welfare Since 1930 by Glen L. Rudd. 1995. P.314. See also D&C 44:6

building up the unfortunate

I am persuaded that one can find charity, the pure love of Christ, in building up the unfortunate, quicker than in any other way.


Marion G. Romney, Marion G. Romney: His Life and Faith by F. Burton Howard. Bookcraft. Salt Lake City. 1988. P.125. Originally in the Annual Relief Society Conference in October 1951.

‘Tis not enough to help the feeble up,
But to support him after.


William Shakespeare, Timon, in Timon of Athens, act 1, sc. 1.

The development of our spiritual nature should concern us most. Spirituality is the highest acquisition of the soul, the divine in man; 'the supreme, crowning gift that makes him king of all created things.' It is the consciousness of victory over self and of communion with the infinite. It is spirituality alone which really gives one the best in life.

It is something to supply clothing to the scantily clad, to furnish ample food to those whose table is thinly spread, to give activity to those who are fighting desperately the despair that comes from enforced idleness, but after all is said and done, the greatest blessings that will accrue from the Church Security Plan are spiritual.


David O. McKay, Pure Religion: The Story of Church Welfare Since 1930 by Glen L. Rudd. 1995. p.45 Originally found in Conference Report, Oct. 1936, p.103

Personally, I believe that the most practical way to protect one's self and family against economic need is to make liberal contributions for the support of the Lord's poor according to the law of the Gospel. I am not promising you riches, but I am telling you that this is the most practical way to protect yourselves and families from actual need.

I believe that it is consistent with the laws of Heaven that one's right of reliance upon the Lord for protection against want is in direct proportion to his own liberality in sustaining the Lord's poor.


Marion G. Romney, Pure Religion: The Story of Church Welfare Since 1930 by Glen L. Rudd. 1995. p.314 Originally in "A Practical Religion," address given to seminary and institute faculty, Brigham Young University, 13 June 1956

of course, we would give it to them

When the war was over, I went representing the Church, to see the president of the United States. When I called on him, he received me very graciously--I had met him before--and I before--and I said: "I have just come to ascertain from you, Mr. President, what your attitude will be if the Latter-day Saints are prepared to ship food and clothing and bedding to Europe."

He smiled and looked at me, and said: "Well, what do you want to ship it over there for? Their money isn't any good."

I said: "We don't want their money." He looked at me and asked: "You don't mean you are going to give it to them?"

I said: "Of course, we would give it to them. They are our brothers and sisters and are in distress. God has blessed us with a surplus, and we will be glad to send it if we can have the co-operation of the government."

He said: "You are on the right track," and added, "we will be glad to help you in any way we can."

I have thought of that a good many times. After we had sat there a moment or two, he said again: "How long will it take you to get this ready?"

I said: "It's all ready...."

"Mr. President, while the administration at Washington were advising the destroying of food, we were building elevators and filling them with grain, and increasing our flocks and our herds, and now what we need is the cars and the ships in order to send considerable food, clothing and bedding to the people of Europe who are in distress. We have an organization in the Church that has over two thousand homemade quilts ready...."

Now, we couldn't have done that a hundred years ago. We were seeking food ourselves. Our people in this valley then were digging thistle and sego roots for food, and they were utilizing every means possible to get food to keep the soul and body together. In a hundred years the desert has been made to blossom as the rose.


George Albert Smith, Pure Religion: The Story of Church Welfare Since 1930 by Glen L. Rudd. 1995. p.245 Originally found in Conference Report, October 1947, p.6

...if a man be meek and lowly in heart, and confess by the power of the Holy Ghost that Jesus is the Christ, he must needs have charity; for if he have not charity he is nothing; wherefore he must needs have charity.

And charity suffereth long, and is kind, and envieth not, and is not puffed up, seeketh not her own, is not easily provoked, thinketh no evil, and rejoiceth not in iniquity but rejoiceth in the truth, beareth all things, believeth all things, hopeth all things, endureth all things.

Wherefore, my beloved brethren, if ye have not charity, ye are nothing, for charity never faileth. Wherefore, cleave unto charity, which is the greatest of all, for all things must fail-

But charity is the pure love of Christ, and it endureth forever; and whoso is found possessed of it at the last day, it shall be well with him.



Moroni 7:44-47