Matthew 22:37-39

"Jesus said unto him, Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy mind.
This is the first and great commandment.
And the second is like unto it, Thou shalt love thy neighbor as thyself."
Matthew 22:37-39


This is incredible.  God telling us what is really important.  Sometimes I find myself wishing that he would do that for me, and then I remember... the scriptures are already here. :)  I don't need God to come and knock on my living room door and tell me what my priorities should be.  God comes first, we need to love him... for our sakes, not his... Neal A. Maxwell, in a talk he gave last night, was talking about justice and mercy (quoting C. S. Lewis), and he said that mercy works when it grows in the nooks and crannies on the mountain of justice, but when people try to banish justice altogether, then mercy grows into a poisonous man-eating plant.  SO interesting.  I think sometimes we try and live our lives thinking that the second great commandment is all that matters... love other people, as we love ourselves... but isn't it apparent that none of this would be possible without God to stabilize the whole thing?  God sees it all... he knows the end from the beginning, and he won't let us get stuck in chapter 3.  His commandments are there for a reason... to make us better and happier beings... the whole design of his existence and effort is for us.  Loving him for that is primary.  And then, the second one... Neal (oh, I mean, Elder Maxwell) also said that we are each others' clinical experience. :)  Learning to love and serve people is our life's learning experience.  He said that sometimes we want to retreat from people... and we do get a break now and then, but it is always back to class.  Guess that is part of God knowing what he is doing. :)  Anyway... loving God and loving other people includes giving them the benefit of the doubt.  Sometimes we doubt God's wisdom... we should give him a chance, we should give the people around us a chance... we should give ourselves a chance.