Peace and Love

Those who have not known love are more likely to have a special struggle in accepting the existence of a God whose greatest attribute is his love, and all of whose laws hang on the first two commandments with their high requirement of love.

Those who have not known forgiveness are more apt to have difficulty forgiving others. Those who have never had to be accountable will have greater difficulty learning to be accountable themselves and are apt to be more shrill in their demands about the accountability of others. Those who have not been trusted will find it more difficult to trust; those who have not earned deserved self-esteem will find it more difficult to esteem others.

Those who have not known peace, both in their homes and in their souls, will find it more difficult to fashion a world in which there is peace—because conflict will seem so normal! Those who do not know specifically what the conditions of righteousness are as described by God will find it more difficult to become righteously indignant at the human conditions that cry out for change.

Elder Neal A. Maxwell
Of the Presidency of the First Quorum of the Seventy
Brigham Young University devotional address