Doctrine and Covenants 4:6

"Remember faith, virtue, knowledge, temperance, patience, brotherly kindness, godliness, charity, humility, diligence."
Doctrine and Covenants 4:6


These are some powerful reminders. Often to avoid being overwhelmed, we try to work on one thing at a time, but I think that lists like this are also excellent things to remember, because it is a combination of things that help us to remember to be better people, rather than just focusing on one thing. If I am only thinking about being nice, I might do something that is REALLY nice, but not very smart. And injecting these guidelines into our everyday lives is really key to becoming Christlike people. It isn't just with people we know or are familiar with that we have to exercise these principles, but with people we don't know or can't really relate to. Might be easy to apply brotherly kindness when it is our actual brother... but what if it is a stranger, or a stranger who smells bad... or someone we know just enough about to label: a Muslim, or an illegal immigrant, or a beggar on the street corner? What if it is a Democrat, or if we're Democratic, what if it is a Republican? What if it is someone who practices homosexuality, or is openly committing adultery, or is beside you at a gas station buying porn? These are all people and groups that we need to also apply these principles to. It isn't okay to hate anyone, or to treat anyone badly... no matter their choices. Today, let's remember this list, and run through it occasionally, evaluating how well we're bringing these principles into our daily interactions and decisions. And if we get hung up on one or two of them as we run through the list, let's try to boost those ones up a little so that next time we can run through the list without snags. :)