Find relief in charity- Extend selves to others

The challenge for members today is to allow Christ's teachings, magnified by the Holy Spirit, to guide them to His ways of seeing and being, according to Aileen H. Clyde, second counselor in the Relief Society general presidency."A striking feature of the effect of a deepened understanding of Christ's love is how such comprehension dignifies and lifts the individual to action," she said, speaking in the Sunday afternoon session.

Just as the Good Samaritan, members should see what others with eyes had walked by without seeing.

"The Good Samaritan did what he could do that no one else would do, and he dignified himself and put us all in awe of him, because we didn't expect the Samaritan to be our neighbor," Sister Clyde remarked.

She said that understanding charity or being charitable is not easy, and the scriptures indicate that it won't be.

"Even `charity suffereth long' requires our thoughtful interpretation. The `suffering' that may come from loving is the result of our great caring. It comes because another matters to us so much.

"As an antidote against the suffering that will surely come as we have loved ones die, or see them struggle, or be misled, or have them misunderstand us or betray us, we can find relief in charity to others."

Sister Clyde continued: "If charity is not always quick to our understanding, it may occasionally be quick to our misunderstanding. It is not charity or kindness to endure any type of abuse or unrighteousness that may be inflicted on us by others. God's commandment that as we love Him, we must respect ourselves, suggests we must not accept disrespect from others.

"It is not charity to let another repeatedly deny our divine agency and nature. It is not charity to bow down in despair and helplessness. That kind of suffering should be ended, and that is very difficult to do alone. We must be willing to let others help us."

Charitable and compassionate service is the central mission of Relief Society, now with nearly 3 million members worldwide, Sister Clyde remarked.

" . . . We rejoice in our great, diversified sisterhood. We have learned that we can do many things together that would be impossible if we worked alone. But our major focus, as a society, is to bless the individual woman as she grows in her knowledge of Christ's gospel and reflects her knowledge by the choices she makes to serve others in righteousness.

"I pray in all humility that our faith in God may move us to such action, and that we may thus know, by the Holy Spirit, the meaning of charity so that we can exercise it in our lives."