I am happy for the opportunity to be with you today. You look good. By that I mean you look fresh, clean, enthusiastic, and wholesome. You are good examples of what disciples of Christ ought to be. I also liked the way you sang the opening song. Do you remember what today is? Of course, it’s Valentine’s Day. I hope that by mentioning this I have saved some of you from problems later tonight. There is still time to buy a Valentine’s gift.
Valentine’s Day can be a lot of fun. A couple of years ago my wife and I decided that we didn’t need to get Valentine’s gifts for each other. However, on Valentine’s Day I could not resist and bought her a gift as I was going home from work. I slipped it into the house and hid it under her pillow so she would find it as she prepared to go to bed. That night, I watched in anticipation as she moved her pillow and enjoyed her happy surprise at the gift. I then removed my pillow only to find she had hidden a gift for me. What a happy Valentine’s Day!
But Valentine’s Day is not always happy for everyone. I often think about Charlie Brown not getting any valentines, and it hurts my heart. I was happy to hear a few years ago that in some of our area high schools the boys all pooled their money and gave every girl in the school a rose on Valentine’s Day so they would all know that someone cared for them. What an impressive display of sensitivity.
When I learned that I would be speaking on Valentine’s Day, I knew that I had to speak about love. I would like to take a poll. If you know someone loves you, raise your hand. (People in overflow areas, raise your hands too.) Next question: If you love someone, raise your hand. These are not trick questions, but every hand should have gone up on both questions because, at the very least, we all should love our Father in Heaven and know that He loves us.
The author Victor Hugo said, “The supreme happiness of life is the conviction of being loved for yourself, or, more correctly speaking, loved in spite of yourself.”[1] I believe that to both love and be loved is essential to our existence. Love is fundamental to the gospel of Jesus Christ and to our very society.
The word love (or its variations) is used 628 times in the scriptures. The two greatest commandments are to love the Lord God with all your heart and to love your neighbor as yourself. One of our ultimate goals is to learn to love the way God loves.
Love has many faces. It can be the romantic feelings between a man and a woman. It can be the feeling of a parent for a child or a child for a parent. It can be the tie that binds friends. It can be the way we feel about humanity in general. It can describe the relationship between God and man.
I would like to spend time talking about each of these manifestations today.
It is no surprise that college students are focused to a great extent on the romantic feelings between a man and a woman. It is a natural part of our makeup to want to love and be loved. In fact, this kind of love permeates our society at every level. Philosophers talk about it; we sing about it; we watch it portrayed in movies; we dream about it; and I think we all hope it will happen to us. I would like to share a few thoughts I have found about love as I have prepared for this talk.
Plato said: “Love is the joy of the good, the wonder of the wise, the amazement of the Gods.” “At the touch of love, everyone becomes a poet.”
The great scientist Albert Einstein explained his theory of relativity like this, “Put your hand on a hot stove for a minute, and it seems like an hour. Sit with a pretty girl for an hour, and it seems like a minute. THAT’S relativity.”
One all-time favorite love poem by Elizabeth Barrett Browning goes like this:
How do I love thee? Let me count the ways.
I love thee to the depth and breadth and height
My soul can reach, when feeling out of sight
For the ends of Being and ideal Grace.
I love thee to the level of everyday's
Most quiet need, by sun and candle-light.
I love thee freely, as men strive for Right;
I love thee purely, as they turn from Praise.
I love thee with the passion put to use
In my old griefs, and with my childhood's faith.
I love thee with a love I seemed to lose
With my lost saints, - I love thee with the breath,
Smiles, tears, of all my life! - and, if God choose,
I shall but love thee better after death.[2]
I am sure that every Latter-day Saint who reads that poem thinks that Elizabeth Barrett Browning would have made a good Mormon. I do feel that she knew something of love.
I decided to interview some of our BYU-Idaho students and share their thoughts on love with you. Here are some of their comments.
Brittani Forbush said: “Through serving one another, we demonstrate our love and concern.”
Shamaine Patterson says: When you are in love you want to “have that person be your best friend, and you think of them more than you think of yourself. Love takes time. It’s a process.”
Rachelle Miller says: “I suppose a person knows they are in love when they realize that they want to be with that person more than anything; and if they can”t be with that person the rest of their life, they want to die.”
Lauren Giles who is married says: “When I first started dating my husband . . . I couldn’t stop thinking about him. I couldn’t eat. I couldn’t sleep. I tried to pick up books to study, but it was no use. I always wanted to be around him; and as cliché as it might sound, I really wanted to be a better person for him.”
As I was researching the subject of love, I found some profound statements from young philosophers that I would like to share.
Manuel, age 8, says: “I think you're supposed to get shot with an arrow or something, but the rest of it isn't supposed to be so painful.”
Greg, age 8, says: “Love is the most important thing in the world, but baseball is pretty good too.”
Mae, age 9, says: “No one is sure why it happens, but I heard it has something to do with how you smell . . . that's why perfume and deodorant are so popular.”
Bart, age 9, says: “One way is to take the girl out to eat. Make sure it's something she likes to eat. French fries usually work for me.”
Alonzo, age 9, says: “Don't do things like have smelly, green sneakers. You might get attention, but attention ain't the same thing as love.”
Wendy, age 8, says: “When a person gets kissed for the first time, they fall down and they don't get up for at least an hour.”
I would say that these kids have a pretty good concept of love.
It is natural that college students focus on love because this is the time of your life when you often find the person you will love throughout eternity. With a little luck, you will end up marrying that person too. As old as I am, I can well remember falling in love with my wife. It was not an easy process. I had been back from my mission for nearly a year when I first dated Marilyn. We had common friends and were friends with each other, but she was waiting faithfully for a missionary. Probably one of my first motivations to date her was to (as we called it at the time) “cut his grass.” It is to Marilyn’s credit that I had to ask her out about six times before she reluctantly agreed to go with me. It was right here on this campus. In fact, for our first date we went to a play in the Kirkham Auditorium. It was exciting to fall in love. You know how it is. Somehow you suddenly run into each other between just about every class. I remember studying in the library and having them threaten to throw me out because I kept talking to her. I am pretty sure that I was convinced that I loved her and wanted her to marry me long before she felt that way. We took classes together. I went to devotional with her. In my innocence I thought that surely no one ever felt love more intensely than I did at that time. There were challenging times along the way, and a couple of times I thought I had lost her to someone else. But through my patient persistence, she finally agreed to marry me. I guess like some of the students I visited with in preparing this talk, I reached a point where the thought of ever doing anything that would hurt her was completely abhorrent to me. I wanted to do everything I could to make her happy.
It was only after we were married that I discovered that even though love can happen naturally, it takes constant work to keep it strong. One of the important things about a marriage is that it is a living thing; it either grows or atrophies. And like any living thing, it must be nourished daily to remain healthy and strong. It takes healthy doses of hearing “I love you” or receiving unsolicited small and large acts of kindness and thoughtfulness to make a marriage strong. It is amazing what can happen if a husband helps wash the dishes or vacuums a floor or makes a bed or when a wife brings an ice cold glass of lemonade to her husband as he labors pulling weeds in the garden. That is what helps make a marriage strong.
Over the years Marilyn and I have played a game called “I love you as much as . . .” Some of my best efforts have been “I love you as much as all the dust particles in the air in Idaho on a dry, windy, summer day” or “I love you more than all the national debt.” I have learned that romantic little thoughts like these go a long way towards keeping love alive and strong.
As I was falling in love, I also learned a couple of other important facts. First, in most cases, people won’t know you love them unless you tell them. (I know that sounds simple, but it is profound.) Second, if you feel the Lord has revealed who you should love, it only counts if he also reveals it to the other person. Too often young men and women fail to realize that receiving a confirmation that someone might make a good mate for them does not mean anything unless the other person gets the same confirmation.
A young man once told me of his experience of praying about a girl he was dating and being convinced that she was the one he should marry. The next time he went out with her, he told her of his experience. Her response was that it could not be true because she had planned to break up with him that night. Naturally, he was devastated and wondered where he had gone wrong. One of his mistakes was to think that his inspiration could hold her captive.
We all know that love between a man and woman can grow until it becomes a force of tremendous power. I came across a story that illustrates this point. Variations of the tale are found in the folklore of Eastern Europe, but it was said to have happened during the Middle Ages in Germany.
The year was 1141 and Wolf, the duke of Bavaria, was besieged inside his castle of Weinsberg by the army of Frederick and his brother the Emperor Konrad.
The siege had lasted long, and Wolf realized he had no choice but to surrender. Messengers rode back and forth, terms were proposed, conditions allowed, and arrangements completed. Wolf and his army prepared to give themselves over to their bitter enemy. But the wives of Weinsberg were not prepared to lose everything. They sent a message to Konrad, asking the governor to promise safe passage for all women in the garrison that they might come out with as many of their valuables as they could carry on their backs.
The request was graciously granted, and soon the castle gates opened. Out came the women– but not as supposed. They carried neither gold nor jewels on their backs, but each one of them was bending under the weight of her husband, whom she hoped to save from the vengeance of the conquering army.
Konrad was so moved by this extraordinary act that he made peace with the duke of Bavaria on much more favorable terms than expected. These women gave new meaning to the idea of supporting their husbands.
The first reference in the scriptures to love between a man and a woman is the love that Isaac had for Rebekah. The second reference tells of the love Jacob had for Rachel. We talk about how much we would sacrifice for the girl we love, but Jacob sets the standard. You remember that Jacob’s mother did not want him to marry any of the local girls, so she sent him on a journey to find a wife from her extended family. Jacob arrived at the home of his uncle Laban and immediately fell in love with the beautiful Rachel. In the spirit of “Johnny Lingo and the Eight-Cow Wife,” Jacob volunteered to work for Laban for seven years to get Rachel for his wife. That is the standard guys. How many of you would sacrifice seven years just to get the girl you love? It was no problem for Jacob. In fact the scriptures say, “And Jacob served seven years for Rachel; and they seemed unto him but a few days, for the love he had to her.”[3]
But as you know, that is not the end of the story. Laban was not totally honest. When Jacob went in to his wife, it was not until the next morning that he found he had married not Rachel but the tender-eyed sister Leah. Of course, Jacob protested; and his now father-in-law said, “Oh right. I made a mistake, but you can have Rachel if you will work for me for another seven years.” (Laban knew he had a good thing going.) So Jacob worked for 14 years to get Rachel, the girl of his dreams. You might say the moral of this story is to never trust a father-in-law, but that would be a mistake because most fathers-in-law are pretty good guys. Maybe its best not to draw any morals but just to note that Jacob was willing to pay a very high price to get the girl of his dreams.
In summary, romantic love is an important part of our lives and, in fact, is essential to perpetuating the human race. There is a lot of truth to the old song that says “love is a many splendored thing.” It is the spice in our lives, and we all hope it will happen to us. But it takes constant nurturing for it to remain strong.
I would now like to shift to the love between parents and children. This is a powerful kind of love and can be compared to the love God has for His children. The first mention of love in the scriptures refers to the love Abraham had for his son Isaac.[4] It is significant that the test God chose for Abraham was to sacrifice his son that he loved. The comparison of God sacrificing His son for us is obvious. What a difficult thing to ask a loving father to do, but Abraham proved he was willing to do anything the Lord commanded. After passing this test, the Lord promised him blessings that would extend throughout the eternities.
The Old Testament tells of Abraham’s love of his son, but the love mothers have for their children is legendary. They will starve or put themselves in harms way to protect their children. Mothers willingly go into the valley of the shadow of death simply to bring children into the world. They literally sacrifice their lives rearing their children. The fact that the children are flesh of their mother’s flesh and that mothers give life-long service to their children creates one of the strongest bonds of love in existence. Mothers love their children so completely that they are totally vulnerable. Too often children thoughtlessly wound their mothers by not treating this “mother’s love” with sacred respect. Many young people don’t come to an awareness of their love for their mothers, as well as their fathers, until they go away to school or to work. I would counsel you that if you have gained an awareness of what you owe your mother and of the love you feel for her, make sure you put your arms around her and tell her. As I said earlier, it is difficult for people to figure out that you love them unless you tell them.
Another important face of love is the love between special friends. Sometimes, friends can become even closer than brothers and sisters. The love between friends can even rival the love parents have for their children. I recently read a story about friends who loved each other so much that they were willing to sacrifice their lives for each other.
A young man whose name was Pythias had done something which the tyrant Dionysius did not like. For this offense he was dragged to prison, and a day was set when he should be put to death. His home was far away, and he wanted very much to see his father and mother and friends before he died.
“Only give me leave to go home and say good-bye to those whom I love,” he said, “and then I will come back and give up my life.”
The tyrant laughed at him. “How can I know that you will keep your promise?” he said. “You only want to cheat me, and save yourself.”
Then a young man whose name was Damon spoke and said,
“O king! Put me in prison in place of my friend Pythias, and let him go to his own country to put his affairs in order and to bid his friends farewell. I know that he will come back as he promised, for he is a man who has never broken his word. But if he is not here on the day which you have set, then I will die in his stead.”
The tyrant was surprised that anybody should make such an offer. He at last agreed to let Pythias go, and gave orders that the young man should be shut up in prison.
Time passed, and by and by the day drew near which had been set for Pythias to die; and he had not come back. The tyrant ordered the jailer to keep close watch upon Damon and not let him escape. But Damon did not try to escape. He still had faith in the truth and honor of his friend. He said, “If Pythias does not come back in time, it will not be his fault. It will be because he is hindered against his will.”
At last the day came, and then the very hour. Damon was ready to die. His trust in his friend was as firm as ever; and he said that he did not grieve at having to suffer for one whom he loved so much.
Then the jailer came to lead him to his death; but at the same moment, Pythias stood in the door. He had been delayed by storms and shipwreck, and he had feared that he was too late. He greeted Damon kindly, and then gave himself into the hands of the jailer. He was happy because he had come in time, even though it was at the last moment.
The tyrant was not so bad that he couldn’t see good in others. He felt that men who loved and trusted each other, as did Damon and Pythias, ought not to suffer unjustly. And so he set them both free.
“I would give all my wealth to have one such friend,” he said.
One of the great friendships recorded in the Old Testament was between David and Jonathan. The scriptures tell us that Jonathan “. . . loved him [David] as he loved his own soul”[5] which, after all, is the same as loving your neighbor as yourself, isn’t it.
David had been anointed by the prophet Samuel to replace Saul as king over Israel. Jonathan, as Saul’s oldest son, was in line to replace his father as king. Because of his great love for his friend David, Jonathan was willing to give up any claim to the throne. His loyalty to David was exhibited when David said he felt he should leave the King’s palace because it was evident that Saul wanted to kill him. Jonathan told David to hide by a rock, and he would try to soften his father. Jonathan spoke for David with his father, but Saul simply aimed his anger at Jonathan and tried to kill him with his javelin. With a sad heart Jonathan went to his friend and told him he would have to leave. David went away for a long time. Still, both he and Jonathan were faithful friends to the end.
Strong friendships can enrich a person’s life and help draw that person closer to the Lord. The Savior said that the second greatest commandment is to “. . . love thy neighbour as thyself.”[6]
When asked the question, “Who is my neighbor?” the Savior answered by telling the story of the Good Samaritan. The message was that everyone should be considered our neighbor. He then raised the bar by saying:
Ye have heard that it hath been said, Thou shalt love thy neighbour, and hate thine enemy.
But I say unto you, Love your enemies, bless them that curse you, do good to them that hate you, and pray for them which despitefully use you, and persecute you (Matthew 5:43-44)
In modern times some sage quipped, “love your enemies, it will drive them crazy.”
One of the greatest tests of a disciple of Christ is to love our neighbors as ourselves and to love our enemies. There should not be any doubt in the minds of those of us gathered here today that we need to consider each person connected to BYU-Idaho as our neighbor.
For the last two years I have been in a position which has given me the opportunity and responsibility to listen to students who feel they have been mistreated by other students or employees. I am grateful that I have not received very many reports of students being mistreated. However, there have been enough that I feel the need to remind everyone that we need to love each other as we love ourselves.
President Howard W. Hunter taught:
In the eyes of the Church and in the followers of Christ there are no differences. Color makes no difference. Language makes no difference. Nationality makes no difference. We are all children of God, and we are brothers and sisters.[7]
He also taught:
I would invite all members of the Church to live with evermore attention to the life and example of the Lord Jesus Christ, especially the love and hope and compassion he displayed. I pray that we might treat each other with more kindness, more courtesy, more humility and patience and forgiveness.[8]
Finally, he said:
We cannot love God unless we love his children also. These are our neighbors, and true love of them knows no class or culture, race, color, or creed.[9]
We have at Brigham Young University-Idaho students from all corners of the United States and many foreign countries. Each student brings a unique cultural background. To a certain extent everyone has to adapt to the unique culture of BYU-Idaho. It requires, as President Hunter said, a willingness to be kind, courteous, full of humility, patience, and forgiveness. We must learn to be sensitive to the feelings of others, especially those whose families are in other countries. We must learn to emphasize the things we have in common, while showing respect, tolerance, and understanding for our differences. We must be slow to take offense, yet quick to forgive. If we do this, we will be well on our way to loving our neighbors as ourselves. But that is the easy part. The Savior said love your neighbors but also love your enemies. That takes even more commitment.
To illustrate this principle, President Hunter told the following story.
As a young man, Brother Vern Crowley said he learned something of the crucial lesson the Prophet Joseph had taught the early Saints in Nauvoo when he told them to “love others, even our enemies as well as friends.” This is a good lesson for each of us.
After his father became ill, Vern Crowley took responsibility for running the family wrecking yard although he was only fifteen years of age. Some customers occasionally took unfair advantage of the young man, and parts were disappearing from the lot overnight. Vern was angry and vowed to catch someone and make an example of him. Vengeance would be his.
Just after his father had started to recover from his illness, Vern was making his rounds of the yard one night at closing time. It was nearly dark. In a distant corner of the property, he caught sight of someone carrying a large piece of machinery toward the back fence. He ran like a champion athlete and caught the young thief. His first thought was to take out his frustrations with his fists, and then drag the boy to the front office and call the police. His heart was full of anger and vengeance. He had caught his thief, and he intended to get his just dues.
Out of nowhere, Vern’s father came along, put his weak and infirm hand on his son’s shoulder, and said, “I see you’re a bit upset, Vern. Can I handle this?” He then walked over to the young would-be thief and put his arm around his shoulder, looked him in the eye for a moment, and said, “Son, tell me, why are you doing this? Why were you trying to steal that transmission?” Then Mr. Crowley started walking toward the office with his arm around the boy, asking questions about the young man’s car problems as they walked. By the time they had arrived at the office, the father said, “Well, I think your clutch is gone and that’s causing your problem.”
In the meantime, Vern was fuming. “Who cares about his clutch?” he thought. “Let’s call the police and get this over with.” But his father just kept talking. “Vern, get him a clutch. Get him a throwout bearing, too. And get him a pressure plate. That should take care of it.” The father handed all of the parts to the young man who had attempted robbery and said, “Take these. And here’s the transmission, too. You don’t have to steal, young man. Just ask for it. There’s a way out of every problem. People are willing to help.”
Brother Vern Crowley said he learned an everlasting lesson in love that day. The young man came back to the lot often. Voluntarily, month by month, he paid for all of the parts Vic Crowley had given him, including the transmission. During those visits, he asked Vern why his dad was the way he was and why he did what he did. Vern told him something of their Latter-day Saint beliefs and how much his father loved the Lord and loved people. Eventually the would-be thief was baptized. Vern later said, “It’s hard now to describe the feelings I had and what I went through in that experience. I, too, was young. I had caught my crook. I was going to extract the utmost penalty. But my father taught me a different way.”
A different way? A better way? A higher way? A more excellent way? Oh, how the world could benefit from such a magnificent lesson.[10]
Every one of us has either had or will have the opportunity and challenge to follow the Savior’s admonition and show love to our enemies. It might be in the form of forgiving someone who has injured us in some way. It might come as the opportunity to help someone who has stolen from us as illustrated in President Hunter’s story. Or it might come in the form of making peace with a roommate who has irritated us for some reason. If we look at these cases with an honest heart and with a true desire to follow Christ, we may find to our amazement and chagrin that sometimes we are the problem that needs to be fixed. I have wondered what would have happened had the young thief in President Hunter’s story not eventually paid for the parts and had stolen again. Would Brother Crowley then be justified in turning him over to the law? I suppose there would still be some alternatives available which might lead to the young man changing his ways. I believe that it would be essential that some effort be made to ensure that the young man did not repeat his actions in the future. The important thing would be that any action taken should be done in love.
The highest manifestation of love is charity. Elder Bruce R. McConkie defined charity this way:
Charity is more than love, far more; it is everlasting love, perfect love, the pure love of Christ which endureth forever. It is love so centered in righteousness that the possessor has no aim or desire except for the eternal welfare of his own soul and for the souls of those around him.[11]
The Doctrine and Covenants teaches us “And above all things, clothe yourselves with the bond of charity, as with a mantle, which is the bond of perfectness and peace.”[12]
The apostle Peter taught, “And above all things have fervent charity among yourselves: for charity preventeth a multitude of sins.”[13]
There are two extensive discourses on charity in the scriptures. One is in 1 Corinthians, chapter 13, and the other is in Moroni, chapter 7. I would like to read several verses from these two chapters.
Though I speak with the tongues of men and of angels, and have not charity, I am become as sounding brass, or a tinkling cymbal.
And though I have the gift of prophecy, and understand all mysteries, and all knowledge; and though I have all faith, so that I could remove mountains, and have not charity, I am nothing.
And though I bestow all my goods to feed the poor, and though I give my body to be burned, and have not charity, it profiteth me nothing.[14]
These are all good things that Paul is talking about. Who of us would not like to have the gift of prophecy, or knowledge, or great faith? How often have we given to the poor? How often have we sacrificed all kinds of things for others? And yet if we did it without having charity, it is not enough. Lets go on:
Charity suffereth long, and is kind; charity envieth not; charity vaunteth not itself, is not puffed up,
Doth not behave itself unseemly, seeketh not her own, is not easily provoked, thinketh no evil;
Rejoiceth not in iniquity, but rejoiceth in the truth;
Beareth all things, believeth all things, hopeth all things, endureth all things.
Charity never faileth: but whether there be prophecies, they shall fail; whether there be tongues, they shall cease; whether there be knowledge, it shall vanish away.[15]
Now let’s skip to verse 13.
And now abideth faith, hope, charity, these three; but the greatest of these is charity.[16]
The prophet Mormon taught:
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; and whoso is found possessed of it at the last day, it shall be well with him.
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. Amen.[17]
We might say then that charity is love that has been purified or sanctified. It focuses not only on the expression of love, but on the intent. I might love my wife, might have great affection for her and spend my life telling her and showing her of my love, but unless that love comes to focus not on making her happy but on her eternal welfare, it will ultimately come to naught. If I love my neighbor only because I know it is the thing to do, that won't be enough. Charity is celestial love, and our goal is to live so that we and those we love might share that love in the company of our Eternal Father in the celestial kingdom. Ultimately, that is what our lives are all about.
Given Elder McConkie’s definition of charity as “. . . love so centered in righteousness that the possessor has no aim or desire except for the eternal welfare of his own soul and for the souls of those around him,” it is easy to understand why the love parents have for their children comes close to the pure love of Christ. Parents in the Church, like Christ, want their children to be saved and exalted in the celestial kingdom. Parents often measure their success in raising their children by how righteous their children are. As a youth I heard my father trying to comfort a neighbor who was mourning for a wayward son by reminding him that the son had been taught well and was simply exercising his agency. It didn’t matter. The parent still blamed himself and felt that he had failed.
In summary, it is important to give and receive romantic love; it is important to have strong friendships; and it is important to love our neighbors as ourselves. But each of those manifestations of love will come to naught unless we develop them to the higher plane where our motive for loving becomes the eternal welfare of those we love.
As he prepared to give his last blessing to his children, Lehi recounted some of the trials of his life and then concluded, “But behold, the Lord hath redeemed my soul from hell; I have beheld his glory, and I am encircled about eternally in the arms of his love.”[18]
It is my prayer that we, like Lehi, can come to feel that we are, “encircled about eternally in the arms of His [God’s] love,” in the name of Jesus Christ, amen.
Notes
[1] Victor Hugo, Les Miserables, [1938] 162
[2] Elizabeth Barrett Browning, Mrs. Browning's Complete Poetical Works, Thomas Y. Crowell & Company Publishers, p. 428
[3] Genesis 29:20
[4] Genesis 22:2
[5] 1 Samuel 20:17
[6] Matthew 22:39
[7] The Teachings of Howard W. Hunter, Clyde J. Williams, ed [2002], 97
[8] Ibid., 99
[9] Ibid., 102
[10] Ibid., 95-97
[11] Bruce R. McConkie, Mormon Doctrine, [1966], 121
[12] Doctrine and Covenants 88:125
[13] Joseph Smith Translation 1 Peter 4:8
[14] 1 Corinthians 13:1-3
[15] 1 Corinthians 13:4-8
[16] Corinthians13:13
[17] Moroni 7:46-48
[18] 2 Nephi 1:15