Pondering the message......

This evening I listened to the General Relief Society Meeting on live stream. I enjoyed the words spoken by all the speakers, but have to say that the words that really echoed in my head were of those spoken by Pres. Monson. He said 'that if we spend our time judging people, we have no time to love them'. As I thought about this, I realized that as we judge we not only are not loving, but we have forfeited our ability to serve...for judging is the opposite and draws us away from serving. To truly serve is to refrain from judgment....to refrain from judgment is to show love. It comes full circle.
Most judgment I believe comes from a lack of loving ourselves, for we tend to have things about ourselves that we are not proud of....So what do we do?...We seek to find fault in others to try and cover up our own flaws....to make us feel better about ourselves.... to say...'I'm not so bad'. Of course it doesn't work....all it really does is add to our list of personal flaws and more judgments against ourselves. Soon we can find we are lonely and isolated as we withdraw from others.
I know that when I serve others I feel good about myself and have loving thoughts toward the ones I serve. That is the key. It is hard to serve and love when we are personally full of things that need fixing....and it is hard to fix ourselves without giving service and love. The answer is to make corrections in ourselves so we can see beyond flaws and instead see the potential we have as individuals and in others. Only then can service be given with genuine love.