“Not as the World Giveth,” For the Strength of Youth, May 2021.
Saturday Afternoon Session
Not as the World Giveth
Excerpts
Violence and conflict will be a signature characteristic of relationships in the last days. …
Brothers and sisters, we do see too much conflict, anger, and general incivility around us. …
… This Easter let’s try to practice peace in a personal way, applying the grace and healing balm of the Atonement of the Lord Jesus Christ to ourselves and our families and all those we can reach around us.
… We need what the scriptures call “the powers of heaven,” and to access these powers we must live by what those same scriptures call “principles of righteousness” [Doctrine and Covenants 121:36]. …
… The principles of righteousness included such virtues as patience, long-suffering, gentleness, and love unfeigned. Absent those principles, it was certain we would eventually face discord and enmity. …
… Tomorrow is Easter, a time for the righteous principles of the gospel of Jesus Christ and His Atonement to “pass over”—pass over conflict and contention, pass over despair and transgression, and ultimately pass over death. …
In spite of betrayal and pain, mistreatment and cruelty, and bearing all the accumulated sins and sorrows of the human family, the Son of the living God looked down the long path of mortality, saw us this weekend, and said: “Peace I leave with you, my peace I give unto you: not as the world giveth, give I unto you. Let not your heart be troubled, neither let it be afraid” [John 14:27]. Have a blessed, joyful, peaceful Easter.