Love with all your heart and make sure they know it.

President Thomas S. Monson once said “I believe that among the greatest lessons we are to learn in this short sojourn upon the earth are lessons that help us distinguish between what is important and what is not. And what is important almost always involves the people around us. Often we assume that they know how much we love them. But we should never assume; we should let them know.  Wrote William Shakespeare: “They do not love that do not show their love”.  Despite the changes which come into our lives, may we fill our days, as much as we can, with those things which matter most. May we cherish those we hold dear and express our love to them in word and in deed. Send that note to a note to a friend in need, give your child a hug, give your parents a hug; say I love you more, always express your thanks. Never let a problem to be solved become more important that a person to be loved.”

There are so many times when we take for granted that which surrounds us, especially our family.  It is so easy to focus on the things that those people aren’t doing rather than the little things that they actually do accomplish.  We tend to hone in on the negative that we forget about all of the little mundane things that happen every day.  We also tend to assume that our loved ones know that we love them but we don’t do anything special to prove it to them.  Perhaps they do know that we love them but if we are always showing our love and especially saying it then there can be no room for doubt.  Also when we say it the more we think about it and mean it.  This causes our relationships to become stronger and our homes more able to invite the spirit.  In the hymn ‘Love at home’ it states “there is beauty all around when there’s love at home.”  The world becomes a brighter place, foods become more rich, your health tends to improve and quality of life goes up immensely when you love and know you are loved in return.

When you’re lying on your death bed you are never thinking ‘I should have invested more, I should have worked longer hours.  I should have bought nicer things.’  Normally your last thoughts go directly to those that you love and your quality of life and relationships you had with others.  You don’t ever want your last thoughts to be ‘did I love enough?’

In a talk by Elder Costa addresses this regret when he shared a poem posted by the husband of one of the flight attendants who was in one of the worst plane crashes in Brazil.  In this plane crash they say: ”There were 199 people killed, including passengers, airline workers, crew members, and others who were at the site when the accident happened.” This poem is entitled “Tomorrow Never Comes”, which is based off of a poem by Norma Cornett Marek.

If I knew this would be the last time I would watch you sleep,

I would hug you tighter. I would plead with the Lord to protect you.

If I knew this would be the last time I saw you walk out the door,

I would hug and kiss you and call you back to hug and kiss you one more time.

If I knew this would be the last time I would hear your voice in prayer,

I would record every gesture, every look, every smile, every one of your words,

So that I could listen to it later, day after day.

If I knew this would be the last time,

I would spend an extra minute or two to tell you, “I love you,” instead of assuming you already knew it.

If I knew this would be our last time, our last moment,

I would be by your side, spending the day with you instead of thinking,

“Well, I’m sure other opportunities will come, so I can let this day go by.”

Of course there will be a day to revise things,

And we would have a second chance to do things right.

Oh, of course there will be another day for us to say, “I love you.”

And certainly there will be another chance to tell each other, “Can I help with anything?”

But in my case, there isn’t one!

I don’t have you here with me, and today is the last day we have—our farewell.

Therefore I would like to say how much I love you,

And I hope you never forget it.

Tomorrow is not promised to anyone, young or old.

Today might be your last chance to hold tight to the hand of the one you love and show all you feel.

If you are waiting for tomorrow, why not do it today?

Because if tomorrow never comes, you certainly will regret for the rest of your life

Not having spent some extra time for a smile, a conversation, a hug, a kiss,

Because you were too busy to give that person what ended up being their last wish.

Then hug tight today the one you love, your friends, your family, and whisper in their ears how much you love them and want them close to you.

Use your time to say,

“I’m sorry,”

“Please,”

“Forgive me,”

“Thank you,”

Or even,

“That was nothing,”

“It’s all right,”

Because if tomorrow never comes, you will not have to regret today.

The past doesn’t come back, and the future might not come! “

Don’t put off till tomorrow what you can do today.  Don’t ever assume that someone you love knows you love them but tell them.  Make sure you live everyday as if you were going to die tomorrow, letting everyone around you know how much they truly mean to you.  Then when that tragic day comes you will not have that regret of ‘did I love enough?’ but you will have a sense of peace knowing that you gave you’re whole heart, nothing wavering and there was no doubt about your love to others.  This will not only cause you to have a peaceful after life but a magnificent life here on earth as well because you will be surrounded by love.  And we all know the power of LOVE!