Jonah 4:9-11 We must learn to love and forgive others as He does

President Uchtdorf:

“When it comes to hating, gossiping, ignoring, ridiculing, holding grudges, or wanting to cause harm, please apply the following:

“Stop it!

“It’s that simple. We simply have to stop judging others and replace judgmental thoughts and feelings with a heart full of love for God and His children. …

“Because we all depend on the mercy of God, how can we deny to others any measure of the grace we so desperately desire for ourselves? …

“The pure love of Christ can remove the scales of resentment and wrath from our eyes, allowing us to see others the way our Heavenly Father sees us: as flawed and imperfect mortals who have potential and worth far beyond our capacity to imagine. Because God loves us so much, we too must love and forgive each other” (“The Merciful Obtain Mercy,” Ensign or Liahona, May 2012, 75–76).

Hosea 2:19-20. We are not in a business deal with the Lord, we are in a love story.

President Eyring after teaching Hosea to a seminary class:

“I had a new feeling about what it means to make a covenant with the Lord. All my life I had heard explanations of covenants as being like a contract, an agreement where one person agrees to do something and the other agrees to do something else in return.

“For more reasons than I can explain, during those days teaching Hosea, I felt something new, something more powerful. This was not a story about a business deal between partners. … This was a love story. This was a story of a marriage covenant bound by love, by steadfast love. What I felt then, and it has increased over the years, was that the Lord, with whom I am blessed to have made covenants, loves me, and you … with a steadfastness about which I continually marvel and which I want with all my heart to emulate” (“Covenants and Sacrifice” [address given at the Church Educational System symposium on the Old Testament, Aug. 15, 1995], 2; si.lds.org).

Daniel 3:17-18. God will deliver us. But if not....

Elder Dallin H. Oak:

“As children of God, knowing of His great love and His ultimate knowledge of what is best for our eternal welfare, we trust in Him. The first principle of the gospel is faith in the Lord Jesus Christ, and faith means trust. I felt that trust in a talk my cousin gave at the funeral of a teenage girl who had died of a serious illness. He spoke these words, which first astonished me and then edified me: ‘I know it was the will of the Lord that she die. She had good medical care. She was given priesthood blessings. Her name was on the prayer roll in the temple. She was the subject of hundreds of prayers for her restoration to health. And I know that there is enough faith in this family that she would have been healed unless it was the will of the Lord to take her home at this time.’ I felt that same trust in the words of the father of another choice girl whose life was taken by cancer in her teen years. He declared, ‘Our family’s faith is in Jesus Christ and is not dependent on outcomes’” (“Healing the Sick,” Ensign or Liahona, May 2010, 50).

Elder Dennis E. Simmons of the Seventy

“Our scriptures and our history are replete with accounts of God’s great men and women who believed that He would deliver them, but if not, they demonstrated that they would trust and be true.

“He has the power, but it’s our test.

“What does the Lord expect of us with respect to our challenges? He expects us to do all we can do. …

“We must have the same faith as Shadrach, Meshach, and Abed-nego.

“Our God will deliver us from ridicule and persecution, but if not. … Our God will deliver us from sickness and disease, but if not. … He will deliver us from loneliness, depression, or fear, but if not. … Our God will deliver us from threats, accusations, and insecurity, but if not. … He will deliver us from death or impairment of loved ones, but if not, … we will trust in the Lord.

“… We will have faith in the Lord Jesus Christ, knowing that if we do all we can do, we will, in His time and in His way, be delivered and receive all that He has” (“But If Not …” Ensign or Liahona, May 2004, 74–75).

Ezekiel 36:25-26. The Savior does more than cleanse us, He changes us from weak to strong.

Elder Dallin H. Oaks

“Why is it necessary for us to suffer on the way to repentance for serious transgressions? We tend to think of the results of repentance as simply cleansing us from sin. But that is an incomplete view of the matter. …

“When a person has gone through the process that results in what the scriptures call a broken heart and a contrite spirit, the Savior does more than cleanse that person from sin. He also gives him or her new strength. That strengthening is essential for us to realize the purpose of the cleansing, which is to return to our Heavenly Father. To be admitted to his presence, we must be more than clean. We must also be changed from a morally weak person who has sinned into a strong person with the spiritual stature to dwell in the presence of God” (“Sin and Suffering,” Ensign, July 1992, 73).

Ezekiel 3:17 Because the Lord is kind, he warns us of danger.

President Eyring:

“Because the Lord is kind, He calls servants to warn people of danger. That call to warn is made harder and more important by the fact that the warnings of most worth are about dangers that people don’t yet think are real” (“A Voice of Warning,” Ensign, Nov. 1998, 32).

Ezekiel 3:17. Elderly man saved everyone in his village from a tsunami in 2004

Elder Joseph B. Wirthlin:

“On December 26, 2004, a powerful earthquake struck off the coast of Indonesia, creating a deadly tsunami that killed more than 200,000 people. It was a terrible tragedy. In one day, millions of lives were forever changed.

“But there was one group of people who, although their village was destroyed, did not suffer a single casualty.“The reason?“They knew a tsunami was coming.

“The Moken people live in villages on islands off the coast of Thailand and Burma (Myanmar). A society of fishermen, their lives depend on the sea. For hundreds and perhaps thousands of years, their ancestors have studied the ocean, and they have passed their knowledge down from father to son.

“One thing in particular they were careful to teach was what to do when the ocean receded. According to their traditions, when that happened, the ‘Laboon’—a wave that eats people—would arrive soon after.

“When the elders of the village saw the dreaded signs, they shouted to everyone to run to high ground. “Not everyone listened.

“One elderly fisherman said, ‘None of the kids believed me.’ In fact, his own daughter called him a liar. But the old fisherman would not relent until all had left the village and climbed to higher ground” (“Journey to Higher Ground,” Elder Wirthlin. Ensign or Liahona, Nov. 2005, 16).