Unity

A thought occured to me the other day as I read these wise words of President Dieter F. Uchtdorf:

“We must realize that all of God’s children wear the same jersey. Our team is the brotherhood of man. This mortal life is our playing field. Our goal is to learn to love God and to extend that same love toward our fellowman. We are here to live according to His law and establish the kingdom of God. We are here to build, uplift, treat fairly, and encourage all of Heavenly Father’s children.” (Pride and the Priesthood, Nov 2010)

Because I love sports (particularly soccer), this statement truly impacted the way I perceived life on earth and the people around me. This isn’t a competition! Of course we all want to improve and individually rise above challenges and obstacles, but don’t we have a responsibility to help others on our team achieve great things too? The earth doesn’t revolve around our own agenda and program. In helping others we find happiness and joy that we could not achieve by our own means.

The Savior said, “if ye are not one ye are not mine” (Doctrine & Covenants 38:27). If we desire the Lord’s help to achieve our goals in this game of life, we must be unified. Contention, selfishness, and disloyalty have no place in God’s team. At times we need to forget ourselves to serve and lift others, thereby lifting and improving ourselves at the same time.

These realizations eventually led to a video that represents this principle so well. Perhaps you’ve seen it before, it’s nothing new. In the following video we see a father sacrificing his own comfort and his own life to help his son feel freedom from his physical limitations. At the same time, this father’s physical abilities were tremendously increased through his determination to serve his son. Both individuals were blessed as they worked as a team. Think about who pushes you along in this life and think about how you too can help others in their journeys.