Last year, Michelle Khare recently ran 7 marathons in 7 days on 7 continents. Michelle is a former stunt-woman turned Youtuber, and she is known for her “challenge accepted” series where Michelle takes on demanding challenges.
The previously mentioned challenge is known as the “Great World Race”, and a relative handful of athletes compete in it. Throughout all the races, Michelle showed several admirable attributes: resilience, love, and agency. Now these attributes were things Michelle worked on, and the more she worked on them the more they showed in her videos. She is an inspiration to millions of her fans as her fans take on their own challenges.
The attributes of love, resilience, and agency are very important, because these attributes may help one to make lasting impact on other people. And then those people can use these attributes to find value in their own life by overcoming boundaries, challenges, and reaching out to other people. All together, these attributes can lead to a cumulative affect on the world full of people seeking to do good.
Attributes are important to work on in order to develop into a more complete person. Jesus Christ says “You, therefore, must be perfect, as your heavenly Father is perfect.” The Greek word for “perfect” in this verse is “teleios”. The word perfect in modern day is a little charged, but did that word “teleios” carry the the same meaning in ancient Greece? Modern day scholars work “teleios” to mean “whole”, “complete”, or “mature”. That is not near an alternate meaning of “without error”. A whole, complete, or mature person can still commit errors, so what would a “whole” person look like to the ancients?
To answer that question, I think Doctor Jennifer Finlayson-Fife has a great take. Doctor Jennifer is an American Psychologist that has been helping inform LDS church members about more fulfilling marital relationships. One of her main therapy points for a couple working on their relationship is to realize mature and immature relationship patterns, and she dives deep into specific content for a couple to work on together and individually. Some of the attributes that Doctor Jennifer talks about are love, resilience, and agency. So I think these attributes help make for a more complete person.
Love is important to have because it has a great affect on the lives of people and the community. Love for another person should not have a selfish rationale, because love is a choice and an integral part of a relationship. There is a level of giving and receiving that is close to collaborating. There should be no competing, accommodating, or compromising. That is how a relationship progresses into something beautiful, because a relationship may be full of selfless yet collaborative actions for another person and the couple.
Before the perfect verse in Matthew, there are additional verses that I would like to talk about.
You have heard that it was said, ‘You shall love your neighbor and hate your enemy.’ But I say to you, Love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you, so that you may be children of your Father in heaven; for he makes his sun rise on the evil and on the good, and sends rain on the righteous and on the unrighteous. (Matthew 5:43-45)
Loving even enemies is important, because we may more identify with heavenly Parents. We are all children of heavenly Parents, and I imagine that they would want all of their children to be finding ways to get along with each other, seeing as we all have the same sun that nourishes our lives. Susa Young Gates has said, “We must love one another. Only [by doing] so can our long years of toil and struggle reach full reward and we be crowned with life everlasting.” Loving each other yields everlasting and peaceful rewards.
There are yet more verses in Matthew 5 that I would like to talk about.
For if you love those who love you, what reward have you? Do not even the tax collectors do the same? And if you salute only your brethren, what more are you doing than others? Do not even the Gentiles do the same? (46-47)
The phrases “Do not even the tax collectors do the same” and “Do not even the Gentiles to the same” stand out to me. We are all humans trying to find a significant life, and we are all encountering challenges. Because challenges are prevalent, then we could more easily relate to another person.
And this is how love should be, without conditions and collaborative for the mutual benefit of everyone.
Resilience allows for an individual to not be beaten down my setbacks and challenges. In the Book of Moses, Eve proclaims something profound that resembles resilience.
[…] Were it not for our transgression we never should have had seed, and never should have known good and evil, and the joy of our redemption, and the eternal life which God giveth unto all the obedient. (Moses 5:11)
Even though Adam and Eve experienced the setback of the Fall, Eve demonstrated resilience to their fall by realizing that they still had a choice for good and joy. Ultimately not backing down meant for Eve to continue forward in God’s plan.
If someone has love and resilience, then that one person ought to have Agency. To explain Agency, I think the Lord says it well in D&C 58, where several saints wanted to know what to do in Missouri.
Verily I say, men should be anxiously engaged in a good cause, and do many things of their own free will, and bring to pass much righteousness (27)
The Lord called the Saints to Missouri, just as He calls all of us to specific places and times. He doesn’t command in everything that we must do, so He probably loves it when we are agents for a good cause. Combining love, resilience, and agency, a person may work and choose to do good actions that are good overall.
All these attributes are great, and I would like to show how Joan of Arc, Corrie ten Boom, and Marie Curie fulfill those attributes. These are amazing women and they are to be learned from.
Joan of Arc was a 17 year old French peasant that lead the French armies during the Hundred Years’ War, and she prompted the coronation of Charles VI. She claimed to have received a visions from notable Christian saints to lead and motivate the French to fight against the English and liberate France from the English. So she went on to inspire the French to reclaim their land from the English, and she had Charles VII crowned so that France could have a leader. Joan had the agency to love her country, and she was resilient in her effort to inspire French to fight the English and reclaim French land.
Marie Curie is a Polish-French physicist and chemist that helped propel discoveries in science. She migrated to Paris from Poland to study science, and she was the first woman to earn a master’s degree in physical science. She had incredible resilience to keep moving forward with her love of science and education because she faced opposition from the academic society which mainly consisted of men. But she was not deterred, she pushed forward not letting others get her down.
Later, she fell in love with Pierre Curie. Marie and Pierre married and they worked together in laboratories making discoveries, where they jointly received a Nobel Prize. Later, Marie continued her work in chemistry where she was the first woman to receive a Nobel prize. This is a woman full of love, resilience, and agency.
Corrie ten Boom was Dutch, devout Christian, watchmaker, holocaust survivor, and writer of The Hiding Place. She became a member of the Dutch Resistance in WWII, where she and her family helped hide refugees in their house.
She was sent to Ravensbrück camp and subjected to poor conditions, and even in those conditions she set up worship services using a smuggled Bible. After her release, she did speaking tours talking about Christian principles of forgiveness. At one speaking event, one of her guests was a camp guard at her concentration camp. She recognized the former guard as the guard approached her. The guard extended a hand thanking her because he learned from her that he could be forgiven by God. Corrie initially struggled because she didn’t know if she could forgive the former guard for his acts. Corrie said a prayer, and shook the former guard’s hand. As she shook the guards hand, Corrie describes a sudden rush of energy coursing through her arm where she felt the relief of forgiving another person.
Through all her trouble and service, Corrie must also be showing love, resilience, and agency to do good.
Love, resilience, and agency are among the noble attributes, because these help us come closer to Jesus Christ, others, and our true selves. Through them, selves and the community are benefitted. Challenges are overcome, and there is an increase of value and good in the world.