Just Be Nice

I was talking to Megan, my daughter-in-law last weekend about the post 9/11 world.  We discussed how after the bombing of the Twin Towers our nation seemed to return to our spiritual roots, but as time passed we, as a nation, are actually less spiritual now than we were before the terrorists attack.

I sometimes wonder that we, as members of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, are any better than the rest of the nation.  We mean well, we try to do everything we are asked to do, but sometimes we, like the rest of the nation are falling short. Megan is the Young Women president in her ward in Cortez, Colorado. She has a counselor who in Megan’s words is “mean” to the girls. The counselor would feel inspired that she needed to tells the girls what they are doing wrong and would do so in no uncertain words. Megan told her “I just want you to be nice” when dealing with the girls and their parents. The counselor felt that if she was inspired, she could just tell it like it is. Finally, after many hurt feelings, Megan told her counselor that she no longer could work with her if she couldn’t be nice to the girls. The counselor was stunned. She couldn’t understand that even if she felt she was inspired, she could also be nice.

I read President Monson’s Washington Post blog on the need for spiritual steadfastness after 9/11. He states: “If there is a spiritual lesson to be learned from our experience of that fateful day, it may be that we owe to God the same faithfulness that He gives to us.” http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/guest-voices/post/911-destruction-allowed-us-to-spiritually-rebuild/2011/09/08/gIQAbkjKCK_blog.html.

We are taught to “turn the other cheek,” and do unto others as you would have others do unto you.”  We need to remember that even though we believe we belong to the true church, that doesn’t give us license say hurtful things to any one, whether we agree with what they are doing or not. We are not their judge, our Heavenly Father is.  And he wants us to be nice.