Visiting Teaching Message: Unity

"Unity" is one of those words we throw around without perhaps fully registering its true meaning. We know we need to be unified in our homes, in our families, in our wards, and in our places of employment. Our governments need to be unified in order to accomplish anything. We need to be unified, "of one heart and one mind," in order to build the city of Zion.

And on it goes. Families, couples, and organizations that aren't unified can quickly find themselves in trouble. One vivid example comes from Bill Nye the Science Guy. In one of the episodes of his TV show, he showed a two-headed snake. Yeah, they're pretty rare, but he managed to come up with a film of one. The background sound featured some tiny voices saying, "I wanna go this way!" "No, I wanna go this way!" "No, this way!"

Bill Nye's objective wasn't to teach viewers the importance of unity, but the example of the two-headed snake still works pretty well. With two heads controlling it, and each trying to take it in different directions, the poor snake couldn't make any progress anywhere. The same happens in our families, our wards, and in our governments. When people in a group are not united, and they're each pulling in different directions, the net result is that the group stays still...or falls apart.

Now, I don't know about you, but I have to admit that sometimes I hear the admonition to be as one, and I start thinking, "Yeah, unity's very important. Everyone else should figure that out and come support my agenda so we can be unified!" Understanding the importance of unity doesn't get us very far unless we are willing to truly live the principle. And that means being willing to bend our own wills and work together towards righteous goals--not necessarily our personal agendas.

(Let's hope my husband doesn't read this post, or he's going to think I'm going to try listening to him more, or something...;-)

This month's visiting teaching message can be found at http://www.lds.org/library/display/0,4945,2044-1-4227-1,00.html