The Lord Be Between Thee and Me For Ever

1
The Lord Be Between Thee and Me For Ever

• Khinckley1_at_yahoo.com

2
By the way, summer is here
3
Temple Recommend Interview
4
Always a little troubling

• 43 Ye have heard that it hath been said, Thou
  shalt love thy neighbour, and hate thine enemy.
• 44 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
• 46 For if ye love them which love you, what
  reward have ye? do not even the publicans the
  same?
• 47 And if ye salute your brethren only, what do
  ye more than others? do not even the publicans
  so?
• 48 Be ye therefore perfect complete, whole,
  even as your Father which is in heaven is
  perfect.

5
Here is the Problem
Envy
Pride
Friendship
Competition
6
C.S. Lewis

• Pride gets no pleasure out of having
  something, only out of having more of it than
  the next man. We say that people are proud of
  being rich, or clever, or good- looking, but
  they are not.
• They are proud of being richer, cleverer, or
  better-looking than others. If every one else
  became equally rich, or clever, or good- looking
  there would be nothing to be proud about.
• It is the comparison that makes you proud the
  pleasure of being above the rest. Once the
  element of competition has gone, pride has gone.

7
Elder Holland

• Among the most memorable parables the Savior ever
  told
  is the story of a foolish younger brother who
  went to his father, asked for his portion of the
  estate, and left home to squander his
  inheritance, the scripture says, in riotous
  living. 1 .
• But being caught up in this younger sons story,
  we can miss, if we are not careful, the account
  of an elder son, for the opening line of the
  Saviors account reads, A certain man had two
  sonsand He might have added, both of whom were
  lost and both of whom needed to come home.
• This son is not so much angry that the other
  has come home as he is angry that his parents are
  so happy about it. Feeling unappreciated and
  perhaps more than a little self-pity, this
  dutiful son forgets for a moment that his
  faithfulness has been and always will be
  rewarded.
• No, he who has virtually everything, and who has
  in his hardworking, wonderful way earned it,
  lacks the one thing that might make him the
  complete man of the Lord he nearly is. He has yet
  to come to the compassion and mercy, the
  charitable breadth of vision to see that this is
  not a rival returning. It is his brother.
• Who is it that whispers so subtly in our ear that
  a gift given to another somehow diminishes the
  blessings we have received? Who makes us feel
  that if God is smiling on another, then He surely
  must somehow be frowning on us? You and I both
  know who does thisit is the father of all lies.
• It is Lucifer, our common enemy, whose cry down
  through the corridors of time is always and to
  everyone, Give me thine honor.

8
1 Samuel 181-4

• 1 And it came to pass, when David had made an
  end of speaking unto Saul, that the soul of
  Jonathan was knit with the soul of David, and
  Jonathan loved him as his own soul.
• 2 And Saul took him that day, and would let him
  go no more home to his father's house.
• 3 Then Jonathan and David made a covenant,
  because he loved him as his own soul.
• 4 And Jonathan stripped himself of the robe that
  was upon him, and gave it to David, and his
  garments, even to his sword, and to his bow, and
  to his girdle.

9
Question

• As David and Jonathans friendship grew, Saul
  increasingly tried to kill David.
• What effect might that have had on the knit
  friendship of David and Jonathan?
• Can our relationships be knit more tightly by
  adversity?
• What, then, decides whether they are knit or
  destroyed by trials?

10
Elder J. Golden KimballAt the death of B.H.
Roberts

• I am now what they call the Senior President
  of the First Council of the Seventy. It is not
  altogether merit. It is just the regular order of
  things in the Church, just as it is with the
  Twelve Apostles. I have had the tenacity to
  outlive my fellow laborers.
• I have given forty-one years of my life
  whole-heartedly for the Seventies. The First
  Council are all presidents equal in authority. As
  much as I honor and respect
  Brother Roberts I have never felt inferior to
  him in his presence he
  has never made me feel that
  way. He had a greater intellect, greater
  intelligence, but I have had some
  gifts of my own, that in a way
  were equal to his.
• I have preached by his side many times, and after
  he got through preaching I
  reached those that he missed,
  so it has been that way during all this time.
  He often said when in the south,
  "Our love is akin to that of
  David and Jonathan."

11
Elder Neal Maxwell

• "When we are struggling to learn to
  love, we can have faith in God's
  developmental plans for
  others as well as
  for ourselves. Then we do
  not feel threatened by those who
  are our superiors or who are
  becoming such.
• The more unselfish we are, the more able we are
  to find joy in their successes, all the while
  rejoicing without comparing. In any case, our
  only valid spiritual competition is with our old
  selves, not with each other. True love and
  friendship enable us to keep that perspective.
• The things about other people that truly matter
  are their qualities such as love, mercy, justice,
  and patience, and their service to others."