Elder Russell T. Osguthorpe, BYU Devotional, March 8, 2011
"My first mission was in
Tahiti. I love the way Tahitians greet each other. The literal meaning of their
greeting word—ia ora na—means “life to you” or “that you might live.” We
are either giving life or taking life from each other as we move forward on our
way.
"Harsh words take life away
from the one who receives them and even from the one who utters them. But words
spoken in love give life....
"[The Savior's] life on the
earth was an example of what it means to do good. But it was also a singular
example of what it means to do good for the right reason. Every act of the
Savior on earth was done out of love. Even in the great premortal council His
offer to the Father was motivated by love for others, while the adversary’s was
motivated by selfishness. The Savior’s mission was to give us life by allowing
us to choose to love the Lord and follow Him. (See Moses 4:1–3.) The
adversary’s goal was to take away our agency and thereby make it impossible for
us to love, because it is impossible to love unless we choose to love.
Love must come from within. It cannot be forced upon us. So for purposes of his
own selfish aims, the adversary would have made it impossible for us to keep
the first two commandments. He would have made us into nothing.
"Christ had a clear mission in
mortality. He came to earth to save each of us. He knew how His life on earth
would end and how His act of love for us would change everything. Each of us
has a clear mission as well, but, like the Savior, we need to remain open to
the needs of others we pass along the way. Our calendars can never be so packed
that we don’t have room to show love to those around us."
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