The gospel of Jesus Christ is to be shared with everyone. It is an inclusive gospel, meant to provide a way for each of us to return to the presence of our Father in Heaven. It is also a learning process. We are fortunate indeed to have inspired leaders to guide us and the scriptures containing God's words to sustain us.

Yet in our dealings one with another, sometimes the message we seek to deliver gets lost in our method of delivery. As we fulfill assignments, both in and out of the Church, do we do so with the true purpose in mind? Or, in the process do we, ourselves, exhibit personality traits we find so jarring in others? Do we sometimes become so concerned about just getting the job done that we forget what the real purpose of the "job" was in the first place?

If we are not watchful, we may think we have mastered parts of the gospel, when in reality, we have yet a long way to go. We may want to "get there" more quickly or even help push along others toward that same destination, but we may not be using the right approach to accomplish our goal.

President Howard W. Hunter, in a conference address, said, "God's chief way of acting is by persuasion and patience and long suffering, not by coercion and stark confrontation. He acts by gentle solicitation and by sweet enticement. He always acts with unfailing respect for the freedom and independence that we possess. He wants to help us and pleads for the chance to assist us, but He will not do so in violation of our agency. He loves us too much to do that." (Conference Report, Oct. 1989, p. 21 or Ensign, Nov. 1989, p. 18.)

This godly example of patience and long-suffering, of persuasion and gentle solicitation, embodied by President Hunter himself, is the Lord's way to accomplish His purposes. We need to make sure that our purposes remain in tune with the Lord's. We may have anxious moments or pressing deadlines, but our true purpose is to complete our assignments and assist our fellow beings. If we — and they — fall short, we need to avoid fault-finding and accusatory tones, and move forward as Heavenly Father and His Son do — purposefully, yet patiently.

President Spencer W. Kimball reminds us, "Each of us is a son or daughter of God, and has a responsibility to measure up to, finally returning to Him with a perfected Christlike life of self-mastery." (Teachings of Spencer W. Kimball, p. 28.)

He continued, "There are Church members who are steeped in lethargy. They neither drink nor commit the sexual sins. They do not gamble nor rob nor kill. They are good citizens and splendid neighbors, but spiritually speaking they seem to be in a long, deep sleep. They are doing nothing seriously wrong except in their failures to do the right things to earn their exaltation. To such people as this, the words of Lehi might well apply: 'O that ye would awake; awake from a deep sleep, yea, even from the sleep of hell, and shake off the awful chains by which ye are bound, which are the chains which bind the children of men, that they are carried away captive down to the eternal gulf of misery and woe.' " (Ibid, p. 149; 2 Nephi 1:13.)

President David O. McKay provided this counsel: "Every time we have opportunity and fail to live up to that truth which is within us, every time we fail to express a good thought, every time we fail to perform a good act, we weaken ourselves and make it more difficult to express that thought or perform that act in the future. Every time we perform a good act, every time we express a noble feeling, we make it easier to perform that act or express that feeling another time." (Pathways to Happiness, pp. 243-44.)

By avoiding the pitfalls of pride and arrogance, and by assisting those around us, we can show more Christlike love toward others. As we do so, we move beyond our own narrow world and expand our horizon to help those struggling along the way. As President McKay reminds us, goodness breeds goodness.

President Ezra Taft Benson taught, "There can be no failure in the work of the Lord when [we] do [our] best. We are but instruments; this is the Lord's work. This is His Church, His gospel plan. These are His children we are working with. He will not permit us to fail if we do our part. He will magnify us even beyond our own talents and abilities when necessary." (Teachings of Ezra Taft Benson, p. 372.)

Echoing that same message, President McKay wrote, "The real test of any religion is the kind of man or woman it makes." (Pathways to Happiness, p. 246.)

What kind of men and women — brothers and sisters — are we?