3 Nephi 12:23-24

"Therefore, if ye shall come unto me, or shall desire to come unto me, and rememberest that thy brother hath aught against thee--
Go thy way unto thy brother, and first be reconciled to thy brother, and then come unto me with full purpose of heart, and I will receive you."
3 Nephi 12:23-24


There are a couple of things in here that I want to talk about. The first is that we have to be first reconciled to our brothers... :) It reminds me of Cain and Abel. Hopefully our interpersonal sparring is nothing near that serious, but however our jealousies and disagreements affect our lives, they get in the way of our relationship with God. We can't give God the attention that he deserves when we're occupied with jockeying for position and worrying about who is right. ... Really, when there are things wrong in our relationships, there is always a part of us that is occupied with the conflict. Building walls, or bombs, or whatever it is, prevents us from meeting God with a clear mind, and we find ourselves with a limited ability to listen or understand. Not saying it is easy... but conflict and bad feelings drive away the spirit. Letting those things go improves our lives, our happiness, and allows us to communicate with God without interference.
The second thing that I wanted to talk about is coming to God with full purpose of heart. Part of this is removing those distracting things, like conflict with other people... but I think it goes beyond that. I think that we have to get to the point where all of our ideals point to God. We can't be hoping for something else, or thinking of God as one of many hypothetical options. When we come to God it has to be with our whole heart, with loyalty and fidelity... a commitment to see it through. If we don't do this, then it's just like any other love triangle. It starts with being pulled apart inside, and ends in pain and pointless tragedy. We cannot serve two masters. :) So, since the other still has some pull, and perhaps we have some issues with our brother... let's resolve all of our loyalty issues, and clear our communication channels, so that when we come unto God again, there is nothing to hinder or prevent us from reaching our goal.