White Supremists...What??? A Post on Dealing With the Hate in the Country

Lately we've seen a lot of hate in our nation. From white supremacist protests to name calling from our current president towards many other leaders. It was interesting and quite a relief to hear Sister Neill F. Marriott speak on closing gaps of hate with love. She was effective in convincing me that it was possible to "love someone [you] don't even like," by sharing an experience from her own life. I think Heavenly Father really needs us, as disciples of Christ, to be leaders in breaching gaps.

Sometimes we feel a gap between ourselves and someone we know. Sister Marriott said that "independently forcing ourselves to have humility and trying to make ourselves love others is insincere and hollow, and it simply doesn’t work." I think it would be really hard to try and love someone we don't get along with or someone who has offended us all by ourselves. We need Heavenly Father's help in those cases. Recently a lady in my ward shared an experience from when she was a young mother living on a military base with her family. She was trying to be nice and she made cookies for the new sister that just moved in. She knocked on the door and the new sister answered and rudely rejected the plate of cookies. Offended, the lady in my ward threw the cookies on the ground and left. She later was notified that she was this new sister's visiting teacher. She shared how it took a lot of prayer and change in her heart, but that she came to love this sister. They eventually overcame their differences and became genuine friends.

This kind of change in heart that makes loving others more important than our differences comes from God. Through prayer, we can "bridge the gap" like Sister Marriott taught and really love someone. Her talk this conference helped me believe that this is true and important for a happy life.