Charity is the love of Christ

     In my religion class, we are assigned two papers throughout the semester. This past week, I have been working on the second paper. The topic being "I want to be better," we were to choose a Christ-like attribute and study it and somehow apply it to our lives. I decided to do charity, and guys, it seriously changed my life. For the research portion, I read Thomas S. Monson's talk "Charity Never Faileth" that he gave in October of 2010. If you haven't read it, I strongly encourage you to do so because it was amazing.
     President Monson's talk really helped me understand charity. I know that charity is a well-known topic in the gospel, and though I've heard it talked about often, I wasn't sure how to develop the characteristic. President Monson described charity as "the opposite of criticism and judging." He goes on to say that "charity... forgives,... charity is patient." He tells us that charity implies that we are sympathetic, compassionate, and merciful. That we should be quick to forgive those who have wronged us and be patient with those that let us down. After reading President Monson's talk, I was able to better understand charity. President Monson tells us that "love is action" and throughout the week, I have become a witness of this. It is constantly give love to everyone, even to those who are hard. It is service and kindness and patience, without expecting anything in return.
     As I tried to act in love and patience throughout the week, I was able to feel Christ's love for me and for everyone else. It really helped me understand that charity is the pure love of Christ. Christ loves all of us completely and perfectly, and when we are charitable, we are harnessing that love and we can feel it for ourselves and for those around us.