From Grace to Charity

by Emily Belle Freeman

On the last night of his life, Hyrum Smith folded down the corner of a page in the Book of Mormon and marked on verse: "I prayed unto the Lord that he would give unto the Gentiles grace, that they might have charity" (Ether 12:36).

What does grace have to do with charity? How does receiving one lead to gaining the other? Scripture tells us that charity is a love that causes us to lay down our lives for someone.  A greater love. A love that we must pray to be filled with. The pure love of Christ. What if charity is the outward expression of our inward understanding of grace? It is meeting others where they are, as they are, and then lifting them. It is the way of Christ.