I've decided to start back on blogging regularly and the topic I've chosen is, I think, the best way I know to do just that.
Now, I don't want my post title to confuse you. This is not about true love in the sense of a relationship between two people involving romantic feelings. This is about something much deeper. Something much more important. Something I wouldn't want to ever be without.
Last night, I had the opportunity to attend a YSA (Young Single Adult) Fireside with Elder David A. Bednar (a member of the quorum of the twelve) and Elder Donald L Hallstrom (a member of the presidency of the seventy) in attendance. I've had the incredible opportunity to be at a meeting of some kind where a general authority was there and/or spoke but this time was different. This time, it got personal.
This was not a typical fireside because they didn't just talk at us while we frantically scrawled their every word messily in our notebooks. Elder Bednar informed us at the start of the fireside that this would be our opportunity for a question and answer session. Not silly non-important questions or questions meant to buoy one up. Questions that we truly wanted the answers to and that are pertinent to our progression and salvation as sons and daughters of God.
I don't want to get into what all the questions were about or all the millions of things I learned. I just want to tell you about something that makes me incredibly appreciative and grateful for where I am and where I've been as well as all the opportunities I am provided with. If anyone wants to know something, I am of course an open book but this is not my focus in this post.
The thing that is apparent to me every time I have the incredible opportunity to be in the presence of a man called of God is the love that seems to almost ooze from their every pore. As soon as these two men walked into the chapel, the love they have for each of us individually was so apparent it was breath taking.
The love these men have for me as a daughter of God was more apparent as the meeting began and they answered our questions. You cannot predict what people will ask in a setting like this but they always knew the right things to say and it was always comforting.
Toward s the end of the fireside, a very brave girl asked a very personal question. She explained that she was struggling with church attendance and depression. In attempts to comfort her, Elder Bednar asked her to come to the podium. I honestly didn't know what to expect. He gave her a card with all of his contact information (phone number, email, address, everything) and told her to keep in touch and he really meant it. The fact that he was willing to reach out to someone struggling so greatly and trying to do better in such an incredibly personal way makes his love for me all the more apparent.
At the close of the fireside, I had the truly wonderful, amazing, spectacular (I could exhaust every positive adjective along these lines but I'll stop here) to wait with everyone else in attendance of the fireside to shake both Elder Bednar's and Elder Hallstrom's hands. I would say this is my favorite part of the evening but it wouldn't be true because I'm saving my truly favorite for last. Anyways, the moment you reach these men (or anyone in their positions) the love they have for all of us as individuals is striking. It could knock you down it's so impressive and apparent and powerful and pure. I love it because there is nothing like shaking hands with someone that doesn't know your name but you know that they love you more than is at all conceivable.
Now to share my favorite favorite favorite part. Before I reached the Elders to shake their hands, there was a boy and his brother (I'm assuming they were brothers) that went across the front of the room to shake hands. The Elders stood near their seats at the podium which is only really accessible via stairs (at least that I could see). The boy's brother was disabled and in a wheel chair. Without knowing the whole story, it seemed that the brother had cerebral palsy. This boy did something for his brother that has the ability to catch me in my tracks and halt all ability to continue. He picked his brother up out of his wheel chair and carried him across the front of the room so that he would be able to shake the Elders' hands like everyone else. It was no easy feat to carry him and the Elders probably would have come down to shake his brother's hand if they had asked. The love he had for his brother was so incredible and so amazing to me.
I am so blessed. I have a mother and father that have my best interest at heart. I have two sisters that love me and I love them more than is expressible. I know that if any of the three of us were in similar situations as this boy and his brother that we would do the same. I know that President Thomas S. Monson, the prophet of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints, is a man called of God and holds essential saving keys. I know that he and his apostles as well as all the general authorities love us. They love me wholly, perfectly, and individually without even really knowing me. I am blessed to have a knowledge of the true and complete gospel of Jesus Christ. I know that he died for me and, almost more importantly, he lives for me. He loves me. Me! Eliza Jean Gibson, an imperfect almost 21 year old girl who struggles in school and tries her best. He loves me more than I can understand. He loves me with a perfect love. He loves me profoundly. He loves me. And I know beyond a shadow of a doubt that he loves you too, as much as he loves me and anyone else.
