band of brothers

once a month i meet with a group of girl friends to discuss a variety of topics - in way it might be described as a self help group - we share goals and insights we have in relation to achieving them. last meeting one of them shared a few thoughts from an article in the ensign entitled "band of brothers." i remember reading the article and not getting anything out of it - just chalking it up as one of those wwii stories. anyway, this morning i chose to reread it and i was struck by one paragraph. it reminded me of something i know marie has given a lot of thought to (the social aspects of the gospel) and it helped me rethink some of my motives for daily decisions. anyway, now you get to be inspired!

Understand Your Priorities

If someone were to ask you who we are as a people, what would you say? Who are we as members of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints?

The answer, I believe, is a simple one given to us by the Savior Himself. We are a people who love the Lord with all our hearts, souls, and minds. And we are a people who love our neighbor as ourselves. (See Matthew 22:37–39.)

This answer satisfies many of the questions asked about why we do what we do. Why does the Church ask so much of its members? Because we love the Lord, and we love our neighbor. Why do we do temple work? Missionary work? Welfare work? Because we love the Lord, and we love our neighbor.

These are the roots of all that we do. We do not send our missionaries out into the world to collect statistics. We send them into the world because we love our Heavenly Father, and we love our fellowmen.

That is who we are as a people. That is why we do what we do.