It wasn’t hard to love him

I know, the scripture says “love the Lord thy God with all thy heart,” but if you’re around a member of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints in the next few days, you might hear a lot about how much we all loved President Hinckley.

I certainly loved him. I only saw him once in person, at a big devotional at BYU when I was a student there ten(!) years ago. I didn’t get to shake his hand, and he probably wasn’t speaking right to me that day. But I was inspired.

Of course, the scriptures go on to tell us to love our neighbors as ourselves, and even to love our enemies. President Hinckley wasn’t a god or a neighbor of mine or an enemy. He was a prophet, a very good man, a loving husband and father. I’m not a trained investigator or even very well-read on recent church history or trivia, but I know, I feel, and always felt, when I listened to him speak or as I read his words or heard about his life, that he was a man of God.

Here are some of his words from his first talk to the church after becoming prophet in 1995:

Now, my brethren and sisters, the time has come for us to stand a little taller, to lift our eyes and stretch our minds to a greater comprehension and understanding of the grand millennial mission of this The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. This is a season to be strong. It is a time to move forward without hesitation, knowing well the meaning, the breadth, and the importance of our mission. It is a time to do what is right regardless of the consequences that might follow. It is a time to be found keeping the commandments. It is a season to reach out with kindness and love to those in distress and to those who are wandering in darkness and pain. It is a time to be considerate and good, decent and courteous toward one another in all of our relationships. In other words, to become more Christlike.

We have nothing to fear. God is at the helm. He will overrule for the good of this work. He will shower down blessings upon those who walk in obedience to His commandments. Such has been His promise. Of His ability to keep that promise none of us can doubt.

As much as we are into the reveration and adoration, we are also, as a people, relatively cavalier about death. There was an awful (forgive me for speaking the truth) talk in our most recent conference in which a man spoke about the death of his first baby, and his not going home (from his far-away work) to his wife for two weeks, and not even returning home for the funeral. On reading the talk again now, it is not so bad, but at the time, I was completely dismayed.

On hearing that Pres. Hinckley had died, Dick and I reflected on how much we loved him, how he was our favorite prophet ever. Dick even went so far as to call him the “best” prophet we’ve had in a long time. I remembered how the not-so-young women in our old congregation in Florida used to speak of Pres. McKay who was “such a gentleman” and “so wonderful with his wife.” Then my brother Ryan called to ask if Dick would have the day off tomorrow, seeing as Dick works for the church.

Dick, having met Thomas S. Monson recently at work, said, wow, now I’ll have met the prophet, because, as our line of succession is stable and follows the pattern of Brigham Young after Joseph Smith, we know that he’ll be President Monson soon. And we’ll probably love him too.

And I’ll remember that the reason we can rejoice in a life lived so well, and not mourn too much at death at age 97 is that I have all faith, conviction, belief that President Hinckley is now with his beloved wife, and happy to be where he is. He wouldn’t want Dick to have the day off tomorrow. I don’t think President Hinckley ever took a day off from doing much more important work — the work of the Lord.

As for me (not having had a day off in almost seven years now), I’m going to take what President Hinckley said to the children to heart this week:

May we go forward with determination to try a little harder to be a little better.