Monday, July 31, 2017

Faith • Hope • Charity

I have long been fascinated by the Christian virtues of Faith, Hope, and Charity.  I have looked a them closely off and on in my life and have loved learning about their power, their beauty and how they are integrally related and interdependent.  I have studied all three of them, lectured about them, and prayed for the gift of all of them, most particularly for the greatest of them all, charity (I Corinthians 13:13) This personal search has led me to believe that the other two virtues are necessary to lead us to the greatest of all, and that you can almost never separate the three.  Just as with two chemicals that when combined create something completely new, two of these virtues when practiced create a newness and a synergy that consistently leads to the third.

So imagine my delight when on our Senior Conference trip we saw the Camargue Cross that symbolizes all three of the virtues interlaced into a breath-taking whole.  President Babin of the Paris mission explained that these virtues are and should be the focus and objective of all missionaries.  I mentioned to one of our other senior sister missionaries who also expressed her love of these virtues and the Camargue cross that I felt that faith, hope, and charity were the main themes of the Book of Mormon.  She wisely added that she thought that they were the theme of the whole gospel, and that when she found that she was lacking in charity, it was because she had fallen short of faith or hope.  I couldn't agree more!  I have found this same truth evidenced on my mission and in my own efforts to come closer to the Savior.

Not only have I loved observing these three virtues in the wonderful member of the church here in France, but my life has also been greatly enriched by the examples of faith, hope, and charity in the amazing senior missionaries that we have been privileged to serve with.


The Camargue cross:
A cross representing faith, the anchor of hope, and a heart symbolizing charity.

3 comments:

  1. Beautifully put, I too look forward to you unique posts. We have been focusing on praying for the gift of Charity in our home reciently too. Every time I am on my breaking point of yelling at my kids I have started singing random melodies and lyrics about charity. It makes my kids roll their eyes and makes me smile and immediately invite the spirit back into my parenting. I occationally sing it loudly out of tune too just to make myself laugh. ��
    Ps The sister I visit teach is coming mid October with her husband to serve in the Paris Temple visitor center. I shared your blog with her and her husband. I told them they would be in good hands out there. ��

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  2. Thank you for those great insights!

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