The Path to Charity

This week in my New Testament class we studied the account of the woman taken in adultery. Another instance that connects somewhat is when James and John want to call down fire on a Samaritan village that rejected Jesus.  Both of these times the message is that Christ came not to condemn but to save.  He is our Loving Savior.  He wants us to give us every opportunity to repent, change and choose Him, and choose love, like He always does.

Last week in Relief Society the lesson was from President Hunter about following the Savior's path to charity.  If you read that lesson then you know the story at the end about the young man who was running his father's salvage yard.  A thief came one night to steal some car parts and the son was determined to exact vengeance.

That story reminded me of an experience about your amazing father.  Some of you may already be familiar with it.  We were shopping in Spokane.  We had a fender bender.  Now I can't remember who was at fault, or the exact nature of the damage.  We pulled into a parking area to talk with the other driver.  It was a young mother.  She got out of her car, very upset ans started swearing up a blue streak.  I was immediately defensive and said something like "Okay you might be mad, but stop swearing!"  Dad turned to me and calmly but firmly said, "Get in the car."  

He continued the conversation with the mother and after a while got back in the car and we went home.  As we talked on the way home, I learned that Dad had offered to fix her car and set up a time to get her car for a couple of days.

When I mentioned her swearing, Dad said, "She was scared.  That's why."  He had instantly put himself in her place and had compassion even with her swearing.  As he quietly listened to her and then talked further, he learned that she was a single mother, feeling tight with money and very dependent on her car.  Dad did fix it.  He put in the extra mile to match the paint and get everything just right.  The night we returned it to her, we gave her some church DVD's.  It was Christmas time.  The most current church Christmas DVD was one of the ones we gave her. She was very grateful and sweet. We didn't keep in contact with her or anything, so we don't know what kind of feeling she had about the church invitations.  The best lesson for me was Dad's very charitable example.  

Today Janet told me about the Primary program practice last week where she observed Dad's compassion.  One of the girls in his class was saying her part, but made a mistake.  She was corrected and felt bad.  She started to cry and rushed straight to Dad's arms.  He hugged and comforted her, just waiting until she was calm enough to try again.  Janet thought it was such a powerful example of compassion.  He's the most compassionate and Christ-like man I know.  I am a better woman because of him.