"Know ye not that there are more nations than one? Know ye not that I, the Lord your God, have created all men, and that I remember those who are upon the isles of the sea; and that I rule in the heavens above and in the earth beneath; and I bring forth my word unto the children of men, yea, even upon all the nations of the earth?"
2 Nephi 29:7
I think this is a good thing to remember, as nations and individuals. We sometimes put cultural blinders on and only see things from our own perspective or the perspective of people who are very similar to us. Here, talking about the scriptures, and many places elsewhere in God's word we hear him asking us to consider other perspectives, including people who sin differently than we do as well as all kinds of other differences in race, gender, country of origin, class, level of wealth, outward appearance, etc. God asks us to "Think of [our] brethren like unto [ourselves]" (Jacob 2:17).
God's first step always seems to be love. He didn't wait for the woman taken in adultery to repent *before* he showed her love. He moved first. The same for so many people that he encountered and blessed. He loved them and served them, and then they changed or were converted, and sometimes as far as we know they just walked away, but he still loved them and gave them that opportunity to follow him.
I think one of our challenges in life is to do the same... to love people first, before they change, even if they are very different than we are, and we can't understand their perspective. Like God, if we stop worrying about where they are from, how they sin, then we can love them without letting cultural barriers get between us. Let's remove those impediments between us, and start loving people better, because love is the first step to *everything* else.
2 Nephi 29:7
I think this is a good thing to remember, as nations and individuals. We sometimes put cultural blinders on and only see things from our own perspective or the perspective of people who are very similar to us. Here, talking about the scriptures, and many places elsewhere in God's word we hear him asking us to consider other perspectives, including people who sin differently than we do as well as all kinds of other differences in race, gender, country of origin, class, level of wealth, outward appearance, etc. God asks us to "Think of [our] brethren like unto [ourselves]" (Jacob 2:17).
God's first step always seems to be love. He didn't wait for the woman taken in adultery to repent *before* he showed her love. He moved first. The same for so many people that he encountered and blessed. He loved them and served them, and then they changed or were converted, and sometimes as far as we know they just walked away, but he still loved them and gave them that opportunity to follow him.
I think one of our challenges in life is to do the same... to love people first, before they change, even if they are very different than we are, and we can't understand their perspective. Like God, if we stop worrying about where they are from, how they sin, then we can love them without letting cultural barriers get between us. Let's remove those impediments between us, and start loving people better, because love is the first step to *everything* else.
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