Loving Our Enemies

It may seem that any benefits that come from loving your enemies are the fuzzy "you'll feel better in the long run, trust me" kind of benefits. Loving your enemies is like eating vegetables, it might be healthier but it sure isn't very satisfying. But there are real, tangible blessings that can come from loving your enemies. Look at the Nephites and Lamanites. Sworn enemies with no hope of reconciliation. But the sons of Mosiah chose to love them anyway and left behind their kingdom and their palaces and risked being attacked and beaten and imprisoned and starved because they loved their enemies. And that decision altered the course of history for the Nephites and Lamanites for the next few centuries. If the sons of Mosiah had not chosen to love their enemies, then twenty years later there would have been no stripling warriors to miraculously save the Nephite armies time and time again. If the Lamanites had not been taught the gospel, then Samuel the Lamanite would never have been able to give them the signs of the Savior's coming. Because the sons of Mosiah chose to love their enemies, they set up the Lamanites as a stronghold of faith so that every time the Nephites would fall into wickedness over the next several decades, the righteous Lamanites would be there to call them to repentance. When we choose to love instead of hate, embrace instead of ostracize, forgive instead of cancel, then we are changing the world for the better not just in this moment but for future generations to come.