Love, Bless, Do Good, And Pray

"But I say unto you, Love your enemies, bless them that curse you, do good to them that hate you, and pray for them which despitefully use you, and persecute you;" (Matthew 5:44). As Martin Luther King Jr. has said, "Darkness cannot drive out darkness; only light can do that. Hate cannot drive out hate; only love can do that." We can't try to get rid of our enemies by eliminating them - like the mythical hydra, if we take out one enemy, two more will take their place. The only way to get rid of an enemy is to love them - love them until there is no more hate inside our own hearts, and no more hate inside of theirs. But how does it work? The Savior shows us the way - bless them, do good to them, pray for them. If we can do good for them directly, if we can serve them or smile at them or text them an inspiring message, then let's start there. If this isn't possible, if neither of us can be in sight of each other without erupting into a fight, then we can try to bless their lives anonymously. Without them noticing, we can try to make their lives a little bit better. If even this is impossible, then we can at least pray for them. We may not mean in sincerely at first, but I know that if we keep praying through our doubts and our resentments and our hatred, eventually the faith-filled act of prayer will bring our angry, hate-filled soul into harmony with our Heavenly Father and His boundless, eternal, unconquerable love. When Enos prayed all day and all night, he started praying for himself, and then for his neighbors and brethren, but finally, after praying for so long, he began even to pray for his enemies. I know that there is power in prayer and if we are struggling to love our enemies, then let's start with prayer. And if the love still isn't coming, then let's try blessing our lives and theirs by making the world a little bit better of a place. And if the love still isn't coming, then let's do good to those that hate us, and keep doing good until our love pushes every last bit of hate out. Life is hard enough without enemies working against us and hatred eating us up from the inside. Let's drive out the darkness and the hate with light and love and blessings and good deeds and prayers.