COUNSEL, CORRECTION, COMMENDATION, COMBINATION
The Discipline of Constructive Intervention
See enough to counsel.
Know enough to correct.
Preserve enough to commend.
Understand enough to combine.
We are to be:
1. Meek and humble—not self-concerned, dismissive, proud, seeking ascendancy. Blessed are the meek because they are not easily offended. Besides, those who “shine as lights in the world” have no need to seek the spotlight! The world’s spotlights are not only fleeting, but they employ inferior light!
2. Patient—not hectic, hurried, pushy.
3. Full of love—not demanding, dominating, manipulative, condescending, or harsh.
4. Gentle—not coarse, brusque, and vindictive.
5. Easily entreated—not unapproachable, inaccessible, and nonlistening.
6. Long-suffering—not impatient, disinterested, curt, easily offended. If one has a chip on his or her shoulder, you can’t make it through the foyer, so to speak, without getting it knocked off.
7. Submissive to God—not resistant to the Spirit, counsel, and life’s lessons.
8. Temperate (self-restrained)—not egoistic, eager for attention and recognition, or too talkative. In your life and mine, the great moments of commendation and correction have come usually in one-liners.
9. Merciful—not judgmental and unforgiving. Blessed are the merciful, for they shall know the caress of causality as their forgiving mercy restores others to wholeness! Though God is perfected in the attributes of justice and mercy, we read that, finally, “Mercy overpowereth justice” (Alma 34:15).
10. Gracious—not tactless, easily irritated, ungenerous.