Because love is the great commandment, it ought to be at the center of all and everything we do in our own family, in our Church callings, and in our livelihood. Love is the healing balm that repairs rifts in personal and family relationships. It is the bond that unites families, communities, and nations. Love is the power that initiates friendship, tolerance, civility, and respect. It is the source that overcomes divisiveness and hate. Love is the fire that warms our lives with unparalleled joy and divine hope. Love should be our walk and our talk.

When we truly understand what it means to love as Jesus Christ loves us, the confusion clears and our priorities align. Our walk as disciples of Christ becomes more joyful. Our lives take on new meaning. Our relationship with our Heavenly Father becomes more profound. Obedience becomes a joy rather than a burden.

The Lord has made it very clear that we do not have to serve Him, but if we seek the blessings of righteousness, we will serve Him, and there is no peace nor happiness, no joy, nor satisfaction, nor freedom in any other course. Let our love extend, and our righteousness increase, for our own sakes and for those who depend upon us.

None of us will escape tragedy and suffering. Each of us will probably react differently. However, if we can recall the Lord’s promise, ‘for I the Lord am with you,’ we will be able to face our problems with dignity and courage. We will find the strength to be of good cheer instead of becoming resentful, critical, or defeated. We will be able to meet life’s unpleasant happenings with clear vision, strength, and power. …

What a joy it is to see someone of good cheer, who, when others because of an unpleasant happening or development live in angry silence or vocal disgust, meets the situation with cheerful endurance and good spirit.

The tithe-payer establishes communion with the Lord. This is the happiest reward. Obedience to the law of tithing, as to any other law, brings a deep, inward joy, a satisfaction and understanding that can be won in no other way. Man becomes in a real sense a partner, albeit a humble one, with the Lord in the tremendous, eternal program laid out for human salvation. The principles of truth become clearer of comprehension; the living of them easier of accomplishment. A new nearness is established between man and his Maker. Prayer becomes easier. Doubt retreats; faith advances; certainty and courage buoy up the soul. The spiritual sense is sharpened; the eternal voice is heard more clearly. Man becomes more like his Father in Heaven.

Make up your mind to be happy-even when you don't have money, even when
you don't have a clear complexion, even when you don't have the Nobel
Prize. Some of the happiest people I know have none of these things
the world insists are necessary for satisfaction and joy. Why are they
happy? I suppose it is because they don't listen very well. Or they
listen too well-to the things their hearts tell them. They glory in
the beauty of the earth. They glory in the rivers and the canyons and
the call of the meadowlark. They glory in the love of their families,
the stumbling steps of a toddler, the wise and tender smile of the elderly.
They glory in honest labor. They glory in the scriptures. They glory
in the presence of the Holy Ghost. One thing I know for certain: the
time we have here goes by far too quickly. Don't waste any more time
sitting on the bench watching life pass you by.

Everything that is true and good is always full of forgiveness.

Another great advantage of joy, contrasted with pleasure, is that joy overrides routine, which, otherwise, could make us bored. We don't know, for instance, how many times Heavenly Father has been through the plan of salvation before with other of His children elsewhere before our particular sequence on this planet. God even hints at the repetitiveness of His redemption when He says, "[My] course is one eternal round" (see 1 Nephi 10:19; Alma 7:20; D&C 3:2). Yet God is never bored by what might seem mere routine. Why? Because of His perfect love for His children! What He calls "my work and my glory" brings abundant and pure joy! (see Moses 1:39).

Another thing about joy: Joy not only helps us do our gospel duties but it increases our individuality. It is sinners who reflect such a stale sameness. Righteousness lends itself to individuality. Think, in contrast, of poor Lemuel, who "hearkened unto the words of Laman" (1 Nephi 3:28). He was Laman's satellite. One wonders if poor Lemuel ever had any thoughts of his own.

A major point about joy is that joy is obviously of a higher order than mere pleasure. Pleasure is perishable. It has a short shelf life. Mere pleasure is not lasting because it is constantly feeding on itself. Thus the appetites of the natural man, though frequently fed, are never filled. For instance, even as gluttony digests its latest glob, it begins anticipating its next meal. The same pattern prevails with regard to the praise of men, to lust, and to greed. Strange as it seems, so far as the carnal pleasures are concerned, the very act of their consumption insures the cancellation of their satisfactions. They just do not last!

Joy, on the other hand, is lasting. It involves the things that really matter, such as being forgiven and forgiving another. One true test of ultimate value has to do with whether or not something is lasting. Of so many human endeavors, even those celebrated with great excitement, the child's question in one of Southey's poems stands as a stark reminder: "But what good came of it at last?" (Robert Southey, The Battle of Blenheim [1798], st. 11). This criterion is not one to which the things of the flesh can successfully respond.

The carnal pleasures cannot finally deliver. In fact, there is a scripture in the Book of Mormon declaring that the adversary lets his followers down at the last day (see Alma 30:60). He can't finally deliver. It is Jesus who is the Great Deliverer!

I know this now. Every man gives his life for what he believes.
Every woman gives her life for what she believes. Sometimes
people believe in little or nothing, yet they give their lives to
that little or nothing. One life is all we have and we live it as
we believe in living it. And then it is gone. But to sacrifice what
you are and live without belief, that's more terrible than dying.