We are grateful to have a prophet on the Earth today. President Thomas S. Monson is a wonderful man and leader of our Church. Below is his Christmas Message of 2012 "Christmas is Love". Here is the link to read it in Chuukese.
Brothers
and sisters, what a beautiful sight you are. It is a privilege each
year to begin my Christmas season with you at this, the First Presidency
Christmas Devotional. I express my love to all of you, whether you are
present here in this building or listening to these proceedings through
other means.
The
Christmas season, with its special meaning and beauty, often prompts a
tear, inspires a renewed commitment to God, and provides—borrowing the
words from the lovely song “Calvary”—“rest to the weary and peace to the
soul.”
However,
it is easy to get caught up in the pressure of the season and perhaps
lose the very spirit in our lives that we’re trying to gain. Overdoing
it is especially common this time of the year for many of us. The causes
for this might include too many Christmas activities to attend, too
much to eat, too much money spent, too many expectations, and too much
tension. Often our efforts at Christmastime result in our feeling
stressed out, wrung out, and worn out during a time we should feel the
simple joys of commemorating the birth of our Savior.
Finding
the real joy of Christmas comes not in the hurrying and the scurrying
to get more done, nor is it found in the purchasing of gifts. We find
real joy when we make the Savior the focus of the season. We can keep
Him in our thoughts and in our lives as we go about the work He would
have us perform here on earth. At this time, particularly, let us follow
His example as we love and serve our fellowman.
A
segment of our society desperately yearning for an expression of love
is found among those growing older, and particularly when they suffer
from pangs of loneliness. The chill wind of dying hopes and vanished
dreams whistles through the ranks of the elderly and those who approach
the declining side of the summit of life.
Wrote
Elder Richard L. Evans some years ago: “What they need in the
loneliness of their older years, is in part at least, what we needed in
the uncertain years of our youth: a sense of belonging, an assurance of
being wanted, and the kindly ministrations of loving hearts and hands;
not merely dutiful formality, nor merely a room in a building, but room
in someone’s heart and life. …
“We
cannot bring them back the morning hours of youth. But we can help them
live in the warm glow of a sunset made more beautiful by our
thoughtfulness, by our provision, and by our active and unfeigned love.”1
My
brothers and sisters, true love is a reflection of the Savior’s love.
In December of each year we call it the Christmas spirit. You can hear
it. You can see it. You can feel it.
Recently
I thought back to an experience from my boyhood—an experience I have
related on another occasion or two. I was just 11. Our Primary
president, Melissa, was an older and loving gray-haired lady. One day at
Primary, Melissa asked me to stay behind and visit with her. There the
two of us sat in the otherwise empty chapel. She placed her arm about my
shoulder and began to cry. Surprised, I asked her why she was crying.
She
replied, “I can’t seem to get the Trail Builder boys to be reverent
during the opening exercises of Primary. Would you be willing to help
me, Tommy?”
I
promised Melissa that I would. Strangely to me, but not to Melissa,
that ended any problem of reverence in Primary. She had gone to the
source of the problem—me. The solution was love.
The
years flew by. Marvelous Melissa, now in her 90s, lived in a nursing
facility in the northwest part of Salt Lake City. Just before Christmas I
determined to visit my beloved Primary president. Over the car radio I
heard the song “Hark! The herald angels sing glory to the newborn King!”2
I reflected on the visit made by wise men those long years ago. They
brought gifts of gold, of frankincense, and of myrrh. I brought only the
gift of love and a desire to say thank you.
I
found Melissa in the lunchroom. She was staring at her plate of food,
teasing it with the fork she held in her aged hand. Not a bite did she
eat. As I spoke to her, my words were met by a benign but blank stare. I
took the fork in hand and began to feed Melissa, talking all the time I
did so about her service to boys and girls as a Primary worker. There
wasn’t so much as a glimmer of recognition, far less a spoken word. Two
other residents of the nursing home gazed at me with puzzled
expressions. At last one of them spoke, saying, “Don’t talk to her. She
doesn’t know anyone—even her own family. She hasn’t said a word in all the time she’s been here.”
Luncheon
ended. My one-sided conversation wound down. I stood to leave. I held
her frail hand in mine, gazed into her wrinkled but beautiful
countenance, and said, “God bless you, Melissa. Merry Christmas.”
Without warning, she spoke the words, “I know you. You’re Tommy Monson,
my Primary boy. How I love you.” She pressed my hand to her lips and
bestowed on it a sweet kiss filled with love. Tears coursed down her
cheeks and bathed our clasped hands. Those hands that day were hallowed
by heaven and graced by God. The herald angels did sing. The words of
the Master seemed to have a personal meaning never before fully felt:
“Woman, behold thy son!” And to His disciple, “Behold thy mother!”3
From Bethlehem there seemed to echo the words:
How silently, how silently
The wondrous gift is giv’n!
So God imparts to human hearts
The blessings of his heav’n.
No ear may hear his coming;
But in this world of sin,
Where meek souls will receive him, still
The dear Christ enters in.4
President
David O. McKay said: “True happiness comes only by making others happy.
… The [spirit of] Christmas … makes our hearts glow in brotherly love
and friendship and prompts us to kind deeds of service. It is the spirit
of the gospel of Jesus Christ.”5
There
is no better time than now, this very Christmas season, for all of us
to rededicate ourselves to the principles taught by Jesus the Christ. It
is the time to love the Lord, our God, with all our heart—and our
neighbors as ourselves. It is well to remember that he who gives money
gives much; he who gives time gives more; but he who gives of himself
gives all.
Let
us make Christmas real. It isn’t just tinsel and ribbon, unless we have
made it so in our lives. Christmas is the spirit of giving without a
thought of getting. It is happiness because we see joy in people. It is
forgetting self and finding time for others. It is discarding the
meaningless and stressing the true values. It is peace because we have
found peace in the Savior’s teachings. It is the time we realize most
deeply that the more love is expended, the more there is of it for
others.
There’s Christmas in the home and church,
There’s Christmas in the mart;
But you’ll not know what Christmas is
Unless it’s in your heart.
The bells may call across the snow,
And carols search the air,
But oh, the heart will miss the thrill
Unless it’s Christmas there.6
As
the Christmas season envelops us with all its glory, may we, as did the
Wise Men, seek a bright, particular star to guide us to our Christmas
opportunity in service to our fellowman. May we all make the journey to
Bethlehem in spirit, taking with us a tender, caring heart as our gift
to the Savior. And may one and all have a joy-filled Christmas. In the
sacred and blessed name of Jesus Christ, amen.
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