The First Presidency Message this month is called "Love at Home."
The one paragraph from President Monson, that really stood out to me was the one entitled What is Most Important. It states: “What is most important almost always involves the people around us. Often we assume that they must know how much we love them. But we should never assume; we should let them know. Wrote William Shakespeare, ‘They do not love that do not show their love.’ We will never regret the kind words spoken or the affection shown. Rather, our regrets will come if such things are omitted from our relationships with those who mean the most to us.”
Jill and I recently watched the last Harry Potter movie. And as cheesy as it sounds, my favorite part of the whole movie was when Harry was able to talk to his parents before facing Tom Riddle. The whole premise of the Harry Potter series is based on love; on the one action of Lily Potter when she attempted to save her son.
Now for a real-life example of family love. We recently had some good friends stay at our home for the weekend. We always knew we were somewhat distantly related. But this time, we got out the genealogy book my parents wrote and looked up some pedigree charts. We found and read all the stories about how the Putnams and Waltons were connected. We found that Israel Putnam and Ruth Walton married and thus connected these two families. We also read that Israel's father (Artemus) was baptized by George Walton on February 14, 1844! As we told our kids these stories, their already strong friendship grew even stronger. Again, we already knew we were distantly related somehow, but when it was confirmed and we knew we were family, our love for each other became sweeter and stronger. Family is everything! Family is love!
