President Joseph Smith on ministering with love and tenderness

Joseph Smith (December 23, 1805-June 27, 1844) was given the apostolic authority when the Church of Jesus Christ was organized on April 6, 1830 and he was designated the first president of the church at age 24. He was martyred in 1844 at age 38.

"Nothing is so much calculated to lead people to forsake sin as to take them by the hand and watch over them with tenderness. When persons manifest the least kindness and love to me, O what power it has over my mind, while the opposite course has a tendency to harrow up all the harsh feelings and depress the human mind.

"It is one evidence that men are unacquainted with the principle of godliness, to behold the contraction of feeling and lack of charity. The power and glory of Godliness is spread out on a broad principle to throw out the mantle of charity."

- Joseph Smith, Nauvoo Relief Society Minute Book, June 9, 1842; see also History of the Church, 5:23–24
Click here to read the full address from the Joseph Smith Papers project

This excerpt comes from an address by Joseph Smith to one of the early meetings of the Relief Society. He spoke very personally about how he responded to the actions of others toward him. If our goal or hope is to encourage others to "forsake sin" in any way, to come unto Christ, this is a lesson we should ponder:

The language Joseph used is so expressive. We don't just talk to people, instruct or counsel them—we "take them by the hand" and we "watch over them with tenderness." As we "show kindness and love" to others, it has power over their minds. As we spread out the "mantle of charity" in our interactions with others, we discover "the power and glory of Godliness" is also being spread. Such wonderful descriptions of true ministering with Christlike charity.

(Compilation and commentary by David Kenison, Orem, Utah, 2019)