In January this year, I decided to make a more deliberate effort to become a disciple of Jesus Christ. I am relearning the principle that growing and gaining strength requires stretching and pushing to your very limits. I shouldn’t be surprised, I’ve learned this in many other situations and accepted the value of it. For some reason though, I always seem to forget it when I start a new course of learning. I’m far from being perfect, but I can feel every day Jesus Christ’s perfecting influence. Sometimes it hurts to stretch. But as some of my martial arts friends used to remind the rest of us, “Pain is weakness leaving your body.” Or spirit, as the case may be.
Elder Robert D. Hales – Becoming A Disciple Of Our Lord Jesus Christ
“I testify that the efforts we make to become disciples of our Savior are truly added upon until we are “possessed” of His love. This love is the defining characteristic of a disciple of Christ:
“Though I speak with the tongues of men and of angels, and have not charity, I am become as sounding brass, or a tinkling cymbal.
“And though I have the gift of prophecy, and understand all mysteries, and all knowledge; and though I have all faith, so that I could remove mountains, and have not charity, I am nothing.”
It is faith, hope, and charity that qualify us for the work of God. “And now abideth … these three; but the greatest of these is charity.”
Brothers and sisters, now more than ever, we cannot be a “part-time disciple”! We cannot be a disciple on just one point of doctrine or another. The constellation of characteristics that result from faith in Christ—including the ones we have talked about today—are all necessary to our standing strong in these last days.”
Weathering The Journey 