“How do we cultivate relationships that are divine?” Sister Reyna I. Aburto, Second Counselor in the Relief Society General Presidency of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints asked the students during BYU-Idaho’s devotional.
She suggested five principles for people to follow to help them develop divine relationships. The first is to follow the example of Jesus Christ.
By following the Savior’s perfect example, we can learn how to develop these kinds of relationships. We get to know people by spending time with them and by having a desire to know them, she explained. If we want to know our Heavenly Father and Savior, we need to do the same.
Jesus Christ showed perfect love for his fellow men by atoning for all mankind. Aburto quoted, “We may never understand nor comprehend in mortality how He accomplished what He did, but we must not fail to understand why He did what He did. Everything He did was prompted by His unselfish, infinite love for us,” Ezra Taft Benson, said.
We must learn to love and serve as Jesus Christ did.
“That is one of the purposes of why we are here, to learn to love, because that is a commandment that we have received,” she said in an interview with BYU-Idaho Radio.
Next, we must repent and minister. These two principles go hand in hand as we strive to live the two greatest commandments, she said.
“When we minister it helps with our repenting and we also help other people repent,” she said. “And when we repent then we have a desire to minister, so it’s connective.”
In her devotional address, she shared an experience of when she was a young single mom. She had a desire to pay a full tithe but didn’t have enough money to do it after paying her bills. She decided to confide in some friends about the struggle she had paying a full tithe. As she opened up to them, they were able to share with her their testimonies of tithing and give her guidance and help on what she could do.
“That conversation with my friends in which they manifested their love for God and for me was a turning point in my life with eternal consequences and blessings,” she said. “They ministered to me in a way that helped me draw closer to God and repent.”
The third principle is getting out of your shell. In her interview, she explained it’s natural to want to be in our comfort zone, but we need to get out so we can grow and find others to serve.
When we close ourselves off from others, we distant ourselves from God and others, she said. “We are wasting that potential that we have inside us because we came to this world to help other people and to let them help us.”
Fourth, we must participate actively in priesthood quorum and Relief Society. If we connect ourselves with these organizations, we are engaging in the work of salvation.
We must ask the question, “What can I do to strength my quorum [or] what can I do to strengthen my Relief Society?” she said.
“There is a divine purpose and we just need to keep asking ourselves how we can be better contributors and to understand that we need to gather, we need to be together so we can receive that power and that strength we need,” she said.
Lastly, we need to pray for that love and be patient.
Learning to love and be patient with ourselves and others is a never ending process, she said. It is something we always have to work for.
From The Book of Mormon she quoted Moroni 7:48, “Wherefore, my beloved brethren, pray unto the Father with all the energy of heart, that ye may be filled with this love, which he hath bestowed upon all who are true followers of his Son, Jesus Christ; that ye may become the sons of God; that when he shall appear we shall be like him, for we shall see him as he is; that we may have this hope; that we may be purified even as he is pure.”
She hopes her message will help students have a desire to come closer to Heavenly Father and Jesus Christ and that they will reach out and be disciples of Him.