Doctrine and Covenants 38:24-27

"And let every man esteem his brother as himself, and practise virtue and holiness before me.
And again I say unto you, let every man esteem his brother as himself.
For what man among you having twelve sons, and is no respecter of them, and they serve him obediently, and he saith unto the one: Be thou clothed in robes and sit thou here; and to the other: Be thou clothed in rags and sit thou there--and looketh upon his sons and saith I am just?
Behold, this have I given unto you as a parable, and it is even as I am.  I say unto you, be one; and if ye are not one, ye are not mine."
Doctrine and Covenants 38:24-27


This is a good scripture... I like how we get the opening message a couple of times... be nice and cool to each other, and also... be righteous... and then... but I was serious.  be nice. :)  it's like when you are going over a list of things in class and the teacher goes on to #4... but then goes back because he can tell you didn't get #3... so the rest of the scripture is a review of the first part. :) 
So, let's think about our review lesson for the day. :)  God is saying we need to esteem our brother as ourselves... there is a nice little family analogy there... and there is another family analogy in that little story about 12 kids... so maybe when God says be one, he means, be part of the family. :)  and if we leave the family, then we are not his... trying to disown ourselves in a way. :)  So, if everyone around us, and everyone that we see every day is part of our family (hmm, is *this* why we call each other "brother" and "sister" at church?) ... then we really need to be nice to them, and remember that no-one in the family is somehow destined or born to be the kitchen help, and we are destined to be the favorite child... we are all part of each other, the same family, the same father, the same eternal possibilities and royal birth... bigger than royal... children of God... we all have that heritage, and that eternal expectation.
When our earthly brother or sister is in trouble, how much do we want to rescue them, to help them... and how far will we go to do it?  shouldn't we do the same for everyone?  when we ourselves are in trouble, don't we give ourselves another chance?  we should probably do the same for the rest of our family...