Daily Answers: What can I do?

We Don't Need to Be the Same to Be One

​Today for my scripture study question, I asked, "What do I need to repent of?" I read Alma 5:14-33 and asked myself the questions Alma asked the people of Zarahemla. These are the questions that touched me today: "Do ye exercise faith in the redemption of him who created you? And now behold, I say unto you...if ye have experienced a change of heart, and if ye have felt to sing the song of redeeming love, I would ask, can ye feel so now?..are ye stripped of pride?..stripped of envy?" And then the invitation, "the arms of mercy are extended towards [all men], and he saith: Repent, and I will receive you." I need to have faith that my heart and others' hearts can change. I need to pray to be humble, to be stripped of envy and pride. I need to do my part which is to repent, and then the Savior's arms of mercy will be extended to me and He will receive me.
​
While contemplating my daily answer and the current turmoil over racial prejudice, I wondered again, "What can I do?" I can repent, but how does that apply to making the world a safer place for everyone? What is my part?

At a recent book club meeting, we discussed the autobiography, "Reaching for the Moon" by Katherine Johnson. Katherine shared her experiences growing up "colored" and her determination to succeed. She was hired by NASA and was part of the group who prepared for the first moon landing. At our book club one member shared the idea of tribal evolution which means that our natural inclination is to judge each person as part of our tribe or not as a means for survival. When I discussed with my two youngest children what needs to happen in the world for us to rise above racial prejudice and brutality, my daughter said, "When we meet someone different from ourselves, we need to recognize that natural instinct and then re-think." I love this. But we don't have to do this on our own. This morning I listened to one of the last talks President Thomas S. Monson gave, "Kindness, Charity, and Love" (Ensign, May 2017). In President Monson's brief talk, he repeated the words of the prophet Mormon, "And if a man be meek and lowly in heart, and confesses by the power of the Holy Ghost that Jesus is the Christ, he must needs have charity; for if he have not charity he is nothing; wherefore he must needs have charity. And charity suffereth long, and is kind, and envieth not, and is not puffed up, seeketh not her own, is not easily provoked...Wherefore, my beloved brethren, if ye have not charity, ye are nothing, for charity never faileth. Wherefore, cleave unto charity, which is the greatest of all, for all things must fail---But charity is the pure love of Christ, and it endureth forever" (Moroni 7:44-47). The way we receive charity is to "pray unto the Father with all the energy of heart, that [we] may be filled with this love" (Moroni 7:48).

What I can do is to pray for charity, repent, and have faith. Faith that in this life and the next, the Savior of the world "healeth the broken in heart, and bindeth up their wounds" (Psalms 147:3).