Relief Society's Founding Legacy

Relief Society's founding legacy
Is one of strength and endurance
As sisters worked together selflessly
At a time long before women's suffrage

They truly held on... for Zion's tomorrow
As they bore persecution and extreme poverty
One would weep to read about their sorrows
While feeling but awe of their generosity

Born of faith in Jesus Christ
Charity remains, today, the motto
Regardless what be the storms of life
There's purpose and heroines to follow

Now, as the church reaches across the earth
Diverse Sisters give comfort as well as succor
Out of love and concern that others know of their worth
They serve, as the teach and testify of the Savior

From heart to heart this legacy is passing along
As the gospel message reaches from home to home
That the family can be made eternally strong
As the joy of the Atonement becomes more and more known

The Enduring Legacy of Relief Society
President Henry B. Eyring
Ensign, November 2009, 121

1 Corinthians
13:1 Though I speak with the tongues of men and of angels, and have
not charity, I am become as sounding brass, or a tinkling cymbal.

13:2 And though I have the gift of prophecy, and understand all
mysteries, and all knowledge; and though I have all faith, so that I
could remove mountains, and have not charity, I am nothing.

13:3 And though I bestow all my goods to feed the poor, and though I
give my body to be burned, and have not charity, it profiteth me
nothing.

13:4 Charity suffereth long, and is kind; charity envieth not; charity
vaunteth not itself, is not puffed up, 

13:5 Doth not behave itself unseemly, seeketh not her own, 

is not easily provoked, thinketh no evil; 

13:6 Rejoiceth not in iniquity, but rejoiceth in the truth; 

13:7
Beareth all things, believeth all things, hopeth all things, endureth
all things.

13:8 Charity never faileth: but whether there be prophecies, they
shall fail; whether there be tongues, they shall cease; whether there
be knowledge, it shall vanish away.

Wanting the Character of Christ- Change My Heart Lord

To know the character of Christ

Is to know His heart and will

To want to serve day and night

To fulfill the Father's will

To become more like the Savior

It's starts with a change of heart

That your motives become pure

That for God you serve, you impart

Line upon line, precept upon precept

Through light and truth, we come to know

It is through love, the commandments are kept

Then as we learn, we feel and grow

Charity and empathy

Sacrifice and service

Seeking for the good continually

Living a life with purpose 

Desiring the success of others

And helping them better become

Seeing all as brothers and sisters

In the name of God, to please Him

Virtue is a pattern of thought

That is a practice of the heart

It must be continually sought

Prayerfully, seeking Christ's love, start

[Verse 1] To know the character of Christ Is to know His heart and will To want to serve day and night To fulfill the Father's will To become more like the Savior It starts with a change of heart That your motives become pure That for God you serve, you impart [Pre-Chorus] Line upon line, precept upon precept Through light and truth, we come to know It is through love, the commandments are kept Then as we learn, we feel and grow [Chorus] Change my heart, Lord Make it pure to do Change my heart, Lord Let my love be true Charity and empathy Sacrifice and service Change my heart, Lord Teach me how to live this [Verse 2] Seeking for the good continually Living a life with purpose Desiring the success of others And helping them better become Seeing all as brothers and sisters In the name of God, to please Him Virtue is a pattern of thought That is a practice of the heart [Pre-Chorus] Line upon line, precept upon precept Through light and truth, we come to know It is through love, the commandments are kept Then as we learn, we feel and grow [Chorus] Change my heart, Lord Make it pure to do Change my heart, Lord Let my love be true Charity and empathy Sacrifice and service Change my heart, Lord Teach me how to live this [Bridge] It must be continually sought Prayerfully, seeking Christ's love, start When my will bends low before Thee Then my life can bear Thy light [Final Chorus] Change my heart, Lord Make it pure anew Change my heart, Lord Let my love be true Charity and empathy Sacrifice and service Change my heart, Lord Teach me how to live this

President Christofferson

Character of Christ

May 2026

Transforming one's heart to reflect Christ's character through charity, empathy, sacrifice, and service.

Let Your Face Shine- Halo of Glory

True, a face can light up 

With the Spirit and power of God

Too, it can shine with love

When all malice towards others is gone

Love one another

And be lifted from the world

Fill your soul with light

Through the reading of God's word

Pray that God be a lamp

Ever to light your feet

Share His glad message to all

He places before you to meet

May your presence and kindness

Alleviate the pains of the distressed

Let your motives be righteous

And God's love for them be expressed

May a halo of glory 

shine around your path

May others call you blessed

As charity, you have

Tose groaning in poverty

Those mired in trial

Those with temptations

Bring them hope to smile

Bear with the faults and errors

Let your hearts expand

Teach repentance, we're sinners

Help them seek God's hand

The enemies before your path

Offer but a soft answer

Turn away all of their wrath

Show them love is what you are after

Oh that we could swiftly lift them

And cast their sins behind our backs

That they might feel God's promise given

But each much travail their own paths

Smile and be of good cheer

Even when death is all around

The comforter draws near

That light and love more surround

Read about everyday life of the early Saints and thoughts from and about Joseph Smith.

Teachings of Joseph Smith

A person filled with the love of God is anxious to bless others.

“Love is one of the chief characteristics of Deity, and ought to be manifested by those who aspire to be the sons of God. A man filled with the love of God, is not content with blessing his family alone, but ranges through the whole world, anxious to bless the whole human race.”²

https://www.churchofjesuschrist.org/study/manual/teachings-joseph-smith/chapter-37?lang=eng

Let Your Face Shine

[Verse 1] True, a face can light up With the Spirit and power of God Too, it can shine with love When all malice towards others is gone [Chorus] Love one another And be lifted from the world Fill your soul with light Through the reading of God's word [Verse 2] Pray that God be a lamp Ever to light your feet Share His glad message to all He places before you to meet [Chorus] Love one another And be lifted from the world Fill your soul with light Through the reading of God's word [Verse 3] May your presence and kindness Alleviate the pains of the distressed Let your motives be righteous And God's love for them be expressed [Verse 4] May a halo of glory Shine around your path May others call you blessed As charity, you have [Chorus] Love one another And be lifted from the world Fill your soul with light Through the reading of God's word [Verse 5] Those groaning in poverty Those mired in trial Those with temptations Bring them hope to smile [Verse 6] Bear with the faults and errors Let your hearts expand Teach repentance, we're sinners Help them seek God's hand [Bridge] The enemies before your path Offer but a soft answer Turn away all of their wrath Show them love is what you are after [Verse 7] Oh, that we could swiftly lift them And cast their sins behind our backs That they might feel God's promise given But each must travail their own paths [Verse 8] Smile and be of good cheer Even when death is all around The Comforter draws near That light and love more surround [Final Chorus] Love one another And be lifted from the world Fill your soul with light Through the reading of God's word [Outro] Let your face shine with love Let God's light lead you home

version 2 Halo of Glory

[Verse 1] True, a face can light up With the Spirit and power of God Too, it can shine with love When all malice towards others is gone Love one another And be lifted from the world Fill your soul with light Through the reading of God's word [Pre-Chorus] Pray that God be a lamp Ever to light your feet Share His glad message to all He places before you to meet [Chorus] May your presence and kindness Alleviate the pains of the distressed Let your motives be righteous And God's love for them be expressed Halo of glory Shine around your path Halo of glory May others call you blessed [Verse 2] As charity, you have Those groaning in poverty Those mired in trial Those with temptations Bring them hope to smile Bear with the faults and errors Let your hearts expand Teach repentance, we're sinners [Pre-Chorus] Help them seek God's hand The enemies before your path Offer but a soft answer Turn away all of their wrath [Chorus] May your presence and kindness Alleviate the pains of the distressed Let your motives be righteous And God's love for them be expressed Halo of glory Shine around your path Halo of glory May others call you blessed [Bridge] Oh that we could swiftly lift them And cast their sins behind our backs That they might feel God's promise given But each much travail their own paths Smile and be of good cheer Even when death is all around The comforter draws near That light and love more surround [Final Chorus] May your presence and kindness Alleviate the pains of the distressed Let your motives be righteous And God's love for them be expressed Halo of glory Shine around your path Halo of glory May others call you blessed

Just Think of It

Think of what you can do

With money, for good

Who has big bills, past due?

Think of the gratitude

Highlight: Are We Not All Beggars?

Having felt want,

there was not pity,

but all at once

There was charity.

Are We All Not Beggars

Jeffrey R Holland

Becoming Tender

How else do you become tender

Save through the bruising of pain?

Then empathy lights in splendor

Through charity unfeigned

The tears, they flow easily

Freed from walls of pretense

The heart warms more readily

For tender mercy is sensed

Upon the Land

When charity is no longer shown
The burden on owners is known
As there's no trust, none borrow or lend
This, then, is a curse upon the land

When the love of God cannot be found
Diverse diseases and plagues abound
Fear and despair takes you by the hand
This, then, is a scourge upon the land

Let each land become more filled with prayer
To protect the freedoms we all share
That prosperity might then return
As we show kindness and more concern

Clarity | Define Clarity at Dictionary.com

dictionary.reference.com/browse/clarity

Dictionary.com

clearness or lucidity as to perception or understanding; freedom from indistinctness or ambiguity

Clarity on Charity

Jesus demonstrated love
To our Father above
And obeyed each and every law
Perfectly, He gave His all

Never was He haughty or puffed up with pride
As He loved, served, taught, and welcomed all by His side
He was genuine in each and every way
This is what we call charity today

The word charity
Is the pure love of Christ
It is our chance to be
Like Him in deed, with light

This light is of Him
It is our conscience
It helps us learn all things
And choose obedience

For as we choose what is wrong
We are filled with guilt
When we change it is not long
Till integrity is built

But we are free to choose
And know the pain of sin
The battle of the soul
Ever goes on within

We were spirit first
Before we took on flesh
Both hunger and thirst
As light and life mesh

The real battle is with pride
As we dismiss this light
We ignore what lies inside
And fabricate what is right

To feel Christ's love within
We must give of ourselves
That our better side wins
His light inside will help

Charity is at the heart
Of the atonement.
The changes that impart
Are for " at one" meant.

1 Cor 13 The love chapter

This video grew on me I put a poem in caps!

Perfect faith, hope, and love casts out all fear
As the love of God lifts our hearts up to cheer
The world and our fine things may all fade away
But the love of God inside will ever stay

Believe, endure, and bear all things 
Share of the spirit for the love that it brings 
Be kind and seek to do as He would 
For loving another is always good

All because of Christ, His atonement. Death is not final
Love ever lasting goes beyond life we see

 So pure the love of Christ. His light and truth!

It expands throughout all eternity

FAITH IN CHRIST, 

HOPE IN CHRIST,

CHARITY- THE PURE LOVE OF CHRIST. 

Beyond All Fear

[Verse 1] Perfect faith, hope, and love Cast out all fear As the love of God Lifts our hearts up to cheer The world and our fine things May all fade away But the love of God Inside will ever stay [Pre-Chorus] Believe, endure, and bear all things Share of the Spirit's living flame Be kind, and do as He would For loving another is always good [Chorus] Faith in Christ Hope in Christ Charity The pure love of Christ Faith in Christ Hope in Christ Charity Forever will not part [Verse 2] All because of Christ His atonement stands Death is not final In His pierced hands Love everlasting Goes beyond what we see So pure the love of Christ His light and truth in me [Pre-Chorus] Believe, endure, and bear all things Share of the Spirit's living flame Be kind, and do as He would For loving another is always good [Chorus] Faith in Christ Hope in Christ Charity The pure love of Christ Faith in Christ Hope in Christ Charity Forever will not part [Bridge] When sorrow tries to name us Your mercy names us first When shadows press around us Your perfect love rehearses No grave can keep its hold now No night can close that door Your love goes on before us And carries us to more [Final Chorus] Faith in Christ Hope in Christ Charity The pure love of Christ Faith in Christ Hope in Christ Charity Beyond all fear and strife Faith in Christ Hope in Christ Charity The pure love of Christ

Visiting Teaching Watchcare

Consistent, prayerful watchcare
Shows one is more than benevolent;
For the charity that we share-
Is an effect of the Lord's Atonement!

When we do our visiting teaching
It is a blessed opportunity;
To set faith forward... reaching-
Warmed by the Spirit, with charity.

Dear Sister, We have said a prayer
To know just what you need.
We brought a lesson to share
And we ask the spirit to lead.


For... divine inspiration
Comes from our Father on high.
He needs no explanation-
He rules the Earth, Sun, Moon, and sky!

Watchcare and Ministering through Visiting Teaching
January 2012 Visiting Teaching Message
Ensign, January 2012, 7

President Henry B. Eyring
"Charity is born of faith in the Lord Jesus Christ and is an effect of His Atonement."

Christ the Servant

Christ the servant
Savior and King
Conquered the serpent
Salvation to bring

With purity
He lived and taught
Through charity
Salvation is sought


Charity- the pure love of Christ
Purity- from: (http://lds.org/scriptures/gs/pure-purity?lang=eng)

Free from sin or guilt; blameless. A person becomes pure when his thoughts and actions are clean in every way. A person who has committed sin can become pure through faith in Jesus Christ, repentance, and receiving the ordinances of the gospel.

He that hath clean hands and a pure heart shall receive the Lord’s blessings, Ps. 24:3–5
Be ye clean, that bear the vessels of the Lord, Isa. 52:11 (D&C 133:4–5).
Blessed are the pure in heart, Matt. 5:8 (3 Ne. 12:8).
Whatsoever things are pure, think on these things, Philip. 4:8 (A of F 1:13).
All ye that are pure in heart, lift up your heads and receive the pleasing word of God, Jacob 3:2–3
Can ye look up to God at that day with a pure heart and clean hands?, Alma 5:19
Being pure and spotless before God, they could not look upon sin save it were with abhorrence, Alma 13:12
Be purified even as Christ is pure, Moro. 7:48 (Morm. 9:6).
Christ will reserve unto himself a pure people, D&C 43:14
The Lord commanded that a house be built in Zion in which the pure shall see God, D&C 97:10–17
This is Zion—the pure in heart, D&C 97:21

A Golden Society

A society
Is found golden
When with charity
It is woven


We are under condemnation
And cannot please the Lord
When we turn our hearts from nations
Or people that are poor

We are to feed the hungry
And help those in need
Giving thanks, humbly
For all we have, indeed

The Sanctifying Work of Welfare H. David Burton
Presiding Bishop
Ensign, May 2011


The work of caring for one another and being “kind to the poor” is a sanctifying work, commanded of the Father.

Charity is

Charity is our love for the Lord
Shown through our acts of service
Patience, compassion, and understanding opens the door
To living close to Him with truth, light, and purpose

Charity is also the Lord's love for us
As He ever shows us forgiveness, mercy, and grace
He waits at the door that prayer opens, thus
That He fill our minds and hearts with pure love's embrace


pondering charity and the Lord standing at the door
what opens the door?
who enters?
what happens?
How can I do this?

Prayer is the invite
That opens the door
Unto truth and light
Come of the Savior

Let us test and try Him
And listen for His answer
Then feel our minds brighten
As to our hearts He enters



http://www.bellaonline.com/articles/art18853.asp a Family Home Evening lesson on:
“Charity is our love for the Lord, shown through our acts of service, patience, compassion, and understanding for one another….Charity is also the Lord's love for us, shown through His acts of service, patience, compassion, and understanding.”
Bonnie D. Parkin, General Relief Society President
Choosing Charity: That Good Part
Ensign, November 2003,


http://speeches.byu.edu/reader/reader.php?id=4600 BYU Devotional
"I challenge each of you to go to your homes and apartments, to kneel before the Lord and ask, to test and try Him, and to listen for His answer. I bear witness that the gospel of Jesus Christ is true; that prayer is a reliable means of communicating with our Heavenly Father; that even with innumerable questions that are unanswered and perhaps unanswerable in this life, we can know He lives and loves us and knows us. In the name of Jesus Christ, amen."
Bart J. Kowallis
He Stands at the Door and Knocks
BYU Devotional, 14 October 2003

On Charity

On charity
May it never fail
Unto purity
And assurance that all is well

The discouraged and afflicted
Are in need of loving aid
As well as those unnoticed
Who'd love a visit made

Still charity is more
Than offering relief
It's knowing what we're here for
And restoring hope and belief

True charity is love in action
There is need everywhere
Judging is a distraction
As we are all lacking much somewhere

When someone let's us down
Or we would to be offended
Let us not in pity drown
But offer Christ's love... extended



thoughts from Monson's words at Women's General conference on Charity

An Invitation for Service

An invitation for service
Is a call for unity
With each finding purpose
Through Christ-like charity

Clothed in the Bonds of Charity

Clothed in the bonds of charity
There is unity and peace
For in the heart there's such purity
That to our minds virtue does increase

And as with a mantle
We are ever changed
We take care to handle
How our thoughts exchange

And as we've been sent
We become of one mind
For love is patient
And forever kind

Shall we boast
Or take offense?
One does not gloat
O'er another man's sins

But delights
In truth and hope
There to endure
And ever cope

Let us judge all
Not by behaviors
But by the unconditional call
Extended by the Savior

Then for strength we'll pull
While we judge the sin
And with charity full
There's a path to begin

For we love our neighbor
And hope they feel likewise
There to help one another
To see through Christ-like eyes

The Bonds of Charity
Carolyn Rasmus
D&C 88:125
Clothe yourselves with the bond of charity

http://scriptures.lds.org/en/gs/c/17?sr=1
The pure love of Christ (Moro. 7: 47); the love that Christ has for the children of men and that the children of men should have for one another (2 Ne. 26: 30; 33: 7-9; Ether 12: 33-34); the highest, noblest, strongest kind of love, not merely affection.
Knowledge puffs up, but charity edifies, 1 Cor. 8: 1. Charity, a pure love, excels and exceeds almost all else, 1 Cor. 13. The end of the commandment is charity out of a pure heart, 1 Tim. 1: 5. Add to brotherly kindness charity, 2 Pet. 1: 7. The Lord has commanded that all men should have charity, 2 Ne. 26: 30 (Moro. 7: 44-47). See that ye have faith, hope, and charity, Alma 7: 24. The love that the Lord has for men is charity, Ether 12: 33-34. Without charity men cannot inherit that place prepared in the Father’s mansions, Ether 12: 34 (Moro. 10: 20-21). Moroni wrote Mormon’s words on faith, hope, and charity, Moro. 7. Charity qualifies men for the Lord’s work, D&C 4: 5-6 (D&C 12: 8). Clothe yourselves with the bond of charity, D&C 88: 125. Let thy bowels be full of charity, D&C 121: 45.

Relief Society- Simple Acts Have Meant the World to Me

Simple acts have meant the world to me
Someone to sit next to when I'm lonely
A lesson that expands my mind and teaches
While unto my spirit it brightens and reaches

Here where the sweet music fills my ears
I oft feel peace increase unto tears
This is my time of refuge from the storm
A time that I don't have to work or perform

Together we expound, we learn, and we grow
As through prayer's invitation charity flows
Here I find the strength for daily life
And the tools I need to overcome strife


Bonnie D. Parkin
Relief Society General President
Address given at the Fall 2004 Open House

click on the title to read the article about Teaching An Entrance to the Heart

I've Felt That Kind of Pain Before

I've felt that kind of pain before
How it pressed upon, wracked, and tore
What can I do to help you through?
Perhaps lift you unto faith anew?

Let's start by reading of our dear Savior
Of how He suffered to pay and favor
I've found so much from His succoring
That He, through the oil press, is offering

Every time I serve to lift and aid
I can't help but think of the price He paid
Oh, how I want to give honor to that love
Unto charity, of which there can't be enough of

Like a Plant Turned

Like a plant turned
We've light and hope
And through faith in Christ we've learned
How best to cope

When we've known pain
We feel deeply
That when another's tears rain
We're found weeping

With clarity
Empathy buds
As then Christ-like charity
Blooms from above

There's no wonder
That we give plants
For, they show, more than words utter
How pure light is needed and spans