2017
Show the Love in Your Heart
January 2017


“Show the Love in Your Heart,” Friend, January 2017

From the First Presidency

Show the Love in Your Heart

Adapted from “Love—the Essence of the Gospel,” Ensign, May 2014, 91–94, and “What Have I Done for Someone Today?Ensign, Nov. 2009, 84–87.

Show the Love in Your Heart

Someone once asked Jesus, “Master, which is the great commandment in the law?”

Jesus answered:

“Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy mind.

“This is the first and great commandment.

“And the second is like unto it, Thou shalt love thy neighbor as thyself” (Matthew 22:36–39).

We can show our love in many ways: a smile, a wave, a kind comment, or a compliment. We can be kind, patient, understanding, and forgiving. This will show others the love in our hearts.

I once read a story about a boy named Jack who grew up in the hills of Virginia in the United States. Every day, his family sat around the table for dinner. His father would ask each one of them, “What did you do for someone today?” The children wanted to do a good deed every day so they could tell their father they had helped someone. As they grew up, they felt a desire in their hearts to help others.

Jack became a successful doctor. Then he created more than 70 clinics across the country to help people who needed medical care. We can’t all create medical clinics, but each of us can do something to help others.

We are surrounded by those in need of our attention, our encouragement, our support, our comfort, our kindness.

May we begin now, this very day, to show love to all of God’s children. As we get up each morning, let us determine to show love and kindness to everyone.

As we come to understand how much God loves us, our hearts will be filled with love for Him, for our Savior, and for all mankind.

Help Us Fill the World with Love!

Jesus asked us to show our love for Him by loving others. Help us fill the world with love by doing something kind and sending us a heart!

Send Us a Heart!

How many loving hearts can we collect this year? Help us find out!

  1. Cut out and decorate a paper heart.

  2. Write about how you followed Jesus by sharing love—or how someone shared love with you.

  3. Send your submission to friend@ldschurch.org or to the address on page 39. Use the permission statement on page 39. (You can also send us a photo of yourself!)

We’ll be adding your hearts to our map of the world through October 2017!