To truly understand charity, I'd like to look at each of the aspects mentioned in the scripture.
And charity suffereth long, ...
...and is kind, ...
...and envieth not, ...
...and is not puffed up, ...
https://www.lds.org/bc/content/shared/content/images/gospel-library/manual/32506/32506_000_057_08-thecycle.pdf
--This is a cycle noted not only in the Book of Mormon, but in other histories as well. How does charity fit into the cycle? Where would you put it? How could we end the cycle in our lives? Does it take charity?
...seeketh not her own, ...
(I just love these Thai videos)
...is not easily provoked, ...
Janie's 70 times 7
... Slowly Janie stood. OK, she thought. I’ll forgive him seventy times seven. But then he’s really going to get it! She went to her bedroom and sat down at her desk. On a piece of scratch paper, she multiplied seventy times seven. “Four hundred and ninety times!” she exclaimed, dismayed. She opened a notebook and wrote “Number of times I’ve forgiven Jimmy” on the top of the first page. Underneath, she made two slashes. “That’s two,” she said aloud. “Only four hundred and eighty-eight to go.” ...
...thinketh no evil, ...
Why would having charity require you to "think no evil"? Can you steal and have perfect charity? Can you lust and have perfect charity?
Can you allow unclean thoughts that involve God or others into your mind and have charity? Are any thoughts unclean that don't include impure thoughts of God or others?
...and rejoiceth not in iniquity ...
"Love the sinner, not the sin." I've found that to be a very important, but a very difficult maxim.
...but rejoiceth in the truth, ...
God the Eternal Father did not give that first great commandment because He needs us to love Him. ...No, God does not need us to love Him. But oh, how we need to love God!For what we love determines what we seek.What we seek determines what we think and do.What we think and do determines who we are—and who we will become.-Pres. Uchtdorf
...beareth all things, ...
...believeth all things, ...
Faith, Hope, and Charity. You see them together a lot. Can you really have one without the other? It makes sense that in order to have charity, you need to have hope and faith. When you can believe in the eternal identity of others, and the amazing potential they possess it becomes so much easier to love them.
...hopeth all things, ...
Loved Back into Activity (activity=attending church and fulfilling callings)
Along with this story, I think of the story of Alma the Younger (see Mosiah 27, or this article)
...endureth all things.
1 Corinthians 13:13
And now abideth faith, hope, charity, these three;
but the greatest of these is CHARITY.
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