"Charity never faileth" (Moroni 7:46)

Yesterday (Valentines Day no less), I polished off six sugar cookies and an Italian ice with custard. After feeling very gluttonous for eating so much junk food in a day I ponder what it is that really matters, because in my family growing up, weight mattered. With the pressure of looking a certain way and dealing with the baggage that comes with such pressure, I tell myself that what I look like doesn't really matter. Also, it doesn't matter if I write the most killer blog. It doesn't matter if I have tons of money or if I am brilliant (or not) beyond anyone else. None of this stuff matters, not even how much faith I have, if I don't have one thing that is all the difference.

The difference is charity. "...If ye have not charity, ye are nothing, for charity never faileth" (Moroni 7:46). "And though I bestow all my goods to feed the poor, and though I give my body to be burned, and have not charity, it profitteth me nothing" (1 Cor. 13:3; see also 1 Cor 13:1-2). There is no gain if I don't have charity. What exactly is charity- because I most definitely have no problem giving money to people in need. But that isn't what charity really is. "Charity is the pure love of Christ. It is the love that Christ has for the children of men and that the children of men should have for one another. It is the highest, noblest, and strongest kind of love and the most joyous to the soul" (Charity). Another way to put it: "Charity is having patience with someone who has let us down. It is resisting the impulse to become offended easily. It is accepting weaknesses and shortcomings. It is accepting people as they truly are. It is looking beyond physical appearances to attributes that will not dim through time. It is resisting the impulse to categorize others."(Charity Never Faileth).

I pray for this gift of charity, real love, that it may fill my heart. I always feel so good when I succeed in doing so. As I type, I realize that I must also have charity for myself. It is so easy to notice all my weaknesses and shortcomings, and thus do the same to others. When I offer charity, this pure love that lifts, encourages, and ennobles, I will succeed. If I offer anything else, it will fail (see Moroni 7:46). Money will fail. Food fails- it spoils, is eaten and gone. Fashion changes and will fail me. Memory fails. All things shall fail... but "charity never faileth" (Moroni 7:46). My hope is to focus on reaching out to others and loving others with this pure love. As Pres. Monson said, "May [charity] permeate your very souls and find expression in all your thoughts and actions".

Even though I may eat kind of cruddy every once in a while, I hope my focus will not be on the physical, nor the intellectual, nor the financial or anything else that can categorize and separate us. My hope is that I can focus on what matters most- even charity, which never fails.