Love Your Neighbors, Including Your Adversaries, Avoid Contention, and Make Peace—a Pattern for Disciples of Jesus Christ
Religious Educators Conference, June 4, 2026
Sisters and brothers, it is a privilege to address you this evening. I am happy to have the opportunity to express gratitude to you and to your spouses. Thank you for your unfailing patience in teaching youth and young adults the doctrine of Christ and its joyful application. Many of you rise early in the morning to teach and inspire and cheer on these young disciples of Jesus Christ. You patiently bear the shenanigans of teenagers and help them discover answers to life’s biggest questions. You are a religious educator and sometimes a job coach or relationship counselor. You listen long and love big. You show your students what discipleship of Jesus Christ looks like.
Your objective is to help youth and young adults deepen their conversion to Jesus Christ and His restored gospel, qualify for the blessings of the temple, and prepare themselves, their families, and others for eternal life with their heavenly parents. You fulfill that objective around kitchen tables, via zoom, in dedicated seminary and institute buildings, and on the soccer field, at the talent show, and the potluck party. As it turns out, your teaching is not limited to a classroom setting.
You employ a variety of techniques as a religious educator, bring your own experience and personality to your service, and spend hours in the scriptures and on your knees.
Thank you for serving “with all your heart, might, mind and strength.” Thank you for loving my sons and supporting them in the journey of discipleship. I thank you in advance for loving my grandchildren and blessing them with your wisdom and testimony. I always told my boys, “You can’t have too many friends.” I feel the same way about Christ-like role models in the lives of our young people. They can’t have too many who are willing to listen, love, and show them what discipleship of Jesus Christ looks like.
I was fascinated by the 2026 Artemis II space mission—a manned spacecraft flying around the moon more than 250,000 miles from earth, including a flyby on the dark side of the moon. The observations of the astronauts, looking back to earth were very compelling to me.
Astronaut and pilot Victor Glover observed:
“Maybe the distance we are from you makes you think what we’re doing is special, but we’re the same distance from you. And I’m trying to tell you, just trust me, you are special. … In … this thing we call the universe—you have this oasis, this beautiful place [planet Earth, where] we get to exist together.”
“As we get close to the … farthest point from Earth, as we continue to unlock the mysteries of the cosmos, I would like to remind you of one of the most important mysteries there on Earth, and that’s love.”
As the Artemis crew began to lose radio communication with NASA on the back side of the moon, astronaut Glover reminded the world of the Savior’s command to love God with heart, soul, and mind, and to love our neighbor as ourselves. And as his words began to fade in and out, he said, “To all of you down there on Earth and around Earth—we love you from the moon.”
Having a view from space of magnificent planet earth, without borders or boundaries, astronaut Glover reminded us that we are special, of the blessing it is to get to exist together as fellow citizens of earth, and of the commandment to love.
At about the same time the Artemis crew was circling the moon with that captivating and inspiring view, President Dallin H. Oaks, the Lord’s prophet, was speaking to all the earth’s inhabitants. He reminded us that “all mortals are beloved children of God.” And he reiterated the Savior’s teachings to love God and love our neighbor.
“Who is my neighbor?” Jesus answered the question with the parable of the good Samaritan. The Samaritans were ostracized and rejected by the Jews. And yet, that merciful, good Samaritan stopped to bind the wounds of the man traveling from Jerusalem—who presumably was Jewish—and who was left for dead on the side of the road. He cared for him and provided for his care. The Samaritan recognized the man who “fell among thieves” as his neighbor. Unburdened by contempt the groups heaped upon each other, the Samaritan loved without reference to social boundaries, religious belief, or political borders. It is almost like the Samaritan enjoyed an astronaut’s view of glorious planet earth, recognizing everyone as his fellow traveler.
The Savior’s command to love thy neighbor includes enemies and, as He explained in the Sermon on the Mount, those who curse, hate, despitefully use, and persecute us. As President Oaks explained, “We are commanded to love [even] our adversaries.”
President Oaks continued with a prophetic invitation for us to “strive to follow [the] Savior in His teachings about how to relate to one another.” He counseled, “As followers of Christ, let us follow Him by forgoing contention and by using the language and methods of peacemakers.”
The Savior taught “He that hath the spirit of contention is not of me.” He also explained that “the devil … is the father of contention, and … [stirs] up the hearts of men [and women] to contend with anger, one with another.”
“Blessed are the peacemakers: for they shall be called the children of God.”
Love your neighbor, and that includes even your adversaries, avoid contention, and make peace—what a poignant and beautiful trio of teachings from the Savior of the world. That trio forms a unified and progressive pattern for those who count themselves as His disciples. Covenant making disciples of Jesus Christ keep their covenants by loving their neighbor—including even their adversaries—avoiding contention, and making peace.
Love changes the heart.
Avoiding contention changes the tone.
Peacemaking changes relationships and our communities.
And in that progressive pattern we become more like and draw closer to Jesus Christ.
The natural man or woman asks, “Who deserves my kindness?” A covenant-keeping disciple of Jesus Christ manifests love for God by showing unselfish love for all of His children, even those who are disagreeable.
The natural man or woman seeks to prove the point—persuasion at all costs—using harsh and hurtful words. A covenant-keeping disciple of Jesus Christ avoids contention, beginning “discussions by identifying common ground on which all agree.” She does not compromise her principles or priorities and does not harshly attack others for theirs.
The natural man or woman categorizes people as allies and enemies. The covenant-keeping disciple of Jesus Christ chooses to make peace by “[managing] honest differences of opinion with mutual respect and dignified dialogue.”
As President Russell M. Nelson counseled, “One of the easiest ways to identify a true follower of Jesus Christ is how compassionately that person treats other people. … True disciples of Jesus Christ are peacemakers. … One of the best ways we can honor the Savior is to become a peacemaker.”
President Nelson explained: “Contention is a choice. Peacemaking is a choice. You have your agency to choose contention or reconciliation. I urge you to choose to be a peacemaker, now and always.”
Prophetic emphasis of the Savior’s teaching to love our neighbor, avoid contention, and make peace is significant and noteworthy. President Oaks has talked of it frequently in his forty-two years as an apostle and prophet. President Nelson challenged us to “change the world—one person and one interaction at a time” by choosing to be a peacemaker.
Significantly, in His Sermon on the Mount, Jesus Christ did not call for “peace-lovers” or “peace-keepers.” He asked us to make peace. Peacemaking is active, not passive—right where we are—in our homes, in our seminary classes, online, on campus, in the workplace, and in the community.
As religious educators, you have influence. Importantly, the students you serve have influence too. These prophetic invitations to love, avoid contention, and make peace are not aspirational. They are direction from the Lord’s mouthpiece on the earth today. It is not new news. Jesus Christ taught it and lived it in His mortal ministry, but the prophetic emphasis ought to garner our attention. I believe it warrants our exploration.
What can I do as a covenant-keeping disciple of Jesus Christ to love my neighbor, avoid contention, and make peace—personally? And what can I do as a religious educator to strengthen the discipleship of my students by promoting their choice to be peacemakers?
Perhaps our most impactful teaching is the example we exhibit. We can choose how we show up—with respect, even when we disagree, and with compassion for the burdens others are carrying. We can show up with the intention to listen to understand rather than defend our position with hostility and hurtful words.
Peacemaking is personal. It is for all of us, religious educators, lawyers, seminary and institute students, daughters, and sons. Peacemaking isn’t just the professional work of diplomats and politicians. In fact, we should not rely upon them for peacemaking. It is up to us!
Recently, I heard from a friend who is part of a group working virtually with young people in Gaza. She reported that these young people walked miles to find an internet signal to participate—not for distraction or escape but to make sure their voice was part of shaping the future. They didn’t come asking for sympathy. They came asking for responsibility to be peacemakers. Even while they have been displaced, these young people have formed small peer circles to care for children, organize basic education, prevent local conflict, check on the elderly, and ensure no one is forgotten. They are not waiting for permission, or stability, or even safety. They are making peace. Amidst war, there is transcendent joy available to those who are making peace.
Peacemakers are willing to practice every day. In the big events and the little things. They get in the arena. They ask questions to increase understanding and then listen. Are you creating a space in your home and classroom where peacemaking can be practiced?
By my observation there are some qualities of effective peacemakers, who avoid contention and who love even their adversaries, which are worth exploring. It is not my intention to offer a self-help style list of things to do to make peace in your home, your classroom, and your community. But I am inviting you to explore what active peacemaking looks like in all of those places and how cultivating the qualities of effective peacemakers in your students will bless them, change the communities in which they live, and help them draw closer to Jesus Christ.
First, peacemakers who avoid contention and love even their adversaries know their divine identity. When we know we are literal spirit children of God, it affects nearly every decision we make, including how we treat others.
What changes when we truly believe we are children of God? We know from Moses’s experience that we are better able to resist temptation, including the temptation to use harsh and hateful words. Moses rebuked Satan’s temptation with these words: “Who art thou? For behold I am a son of God, in similitude of his Only Begotten.”
When we believe we are children of God, our ability to make sense of the challenges we face in mortality is improved. We are more invested in a relationship with Jesus Christ. We set eternal priorities. And significantly—to loving our neighbor, avoiding contention, and peacemaking—when we understand we are children of God, we treat others as children of God.
You approach your day differently when you have it imprinted on your heart that you are a child of God and that your fellow travelers in life are too. It is even better than having an astronaut’s view of the world.
In my professional life as a lawyer and litigator, I tried to find something in common with opposing counsel, taking a genuine interest in their lives. If I learned they had a child in college, I might ask how their studies were going. If they supported a particular sports team, I mentioned a recent win. These small gestures did not weaken my advocacy; they strengthened it. They signaled sincerity, helping build trust even across disagreement. My goal was always to solve the problem at hand—to find common ground wherever possible, because I recognized we did have common ground, we are all spirit children of the same Heavenly Father. Remembering that truth became a steady guide. It helped me navigate challenges with respect and purpose without ever compromising the cause I represented.
Some of the lawyers were very disagreeable. But in my heart, I knew that, like me, they were children of a loving Heavenly Father and their clients were too. Keeping a broad view of who we all are helped me navigate the natural challenges of practicing law where conflict, or the potential for conflict, was the reason for my work.
In 2022 I met Claudia Martinez, the Minister of Women for the province of Cordoba in Argentina. Ms. Martinez had focused her energy and resources on protecting women and children from violence. In the resource center I visited, she had created a secure and dignified place for victims of domestic violence to stay. The center provided school for the children and educational opportunities for women to learn a trade. Police and investigative services as well as judicial resources and legal counsel were there in the facility too. All the services a woman fleeing domestic violence might need were under one safe roof. And for the perpetrators of violence a separate facility offered rehabilitative services.
Ms. Martinez was a sincere woman, motivated by genuine concern for the people in her province. I explained that we had much in common. I told her that I could feel that she was motivated by love for God and His children. I explained why we call each other brother and sister—because we know we are all children of God—that we have a divine heritage. “You are a child of God,” I said to her.
And then I asked, “What would change if the women and children seeking protection in the facility—and the men who are the perpetrators of the violence—what if they knew, really knew, that they are children of God?”
It was quite a remarkable experience for me. There was a physical change to her countenance when I reminded her that she was a child of God. I invited her to help the people she served recognize their own divine identity. Imagine what change could be affected if both the victims and perpetrators of domestic violence knew they are children of God. We know this is a fundamental truth. But there are many fellow travelers who don’t have the truth imprinted on their hearts.
I cannot tell you how to do it. I don’t know your students. But I invite you to prayerfully consider what experiences you can offer your students so that they come to understand deeply and personally their identity as children of God. We sing it. We say it. Do we have it imprinted upon our hearts?
Remember the counsel of President Nelson. In May 2022 to a worldwide audience, he invited young adults to “know the truth about who you are.” It is a fundamental truth, because once we know for ourselves that we are spirit children of God with divine potential, we are positioned to love our neighbors, even our adversaries, who are likewise children of God. We are better prepared to avoid contention and make peace, rescued from the foibles of the natural man. Instead of labeling one another by race or ethnicity, political party or the sports team one supports—what if the identifier we attach to ourselves and others is, first, child of God. Having that truth imprinted on my heart helps me love my adversary, avoid contention, and make peace.
Kindness is another quality I observe in disciples of Jesus Christ who love, avoid contention, and make peace. Be kind to others. It is a simple principle, and yet President Oaks has admonished, “We know that the adversary tempts all of us to be unkind. … Persistent unkindness is known by many names, such as bullying, ganging up on someone, or joining together to reject others. These examples deliberately inflict pain on classmates or friends. … It is not pleasing to the Lord if we are cruel or mean to others.”
President Oaks shared this example: “I know of a young man, a refugee here in Utah, who was teased for being different, including sometimes speaking his native language. He was persecuted by a gang of privileged youth until he retaliated in a way that caused him to be jailed for over 70 days while being considered for deportation. I don’t know what provoked this group of youth, many of them Latter-day Saints like you, but I can see the effect of their meanness, a tragic experience and expense to one of the children of God. Small actions of unkindness can have devastating consequences.”
And you may recall Elder Gong’s example from his general conference message “No One Sits Alone.” Elder Gong told of going with “a brokenhearted father to visit his son. Years earlier, the son was excited to become a new deacon. The occasion included his family buying him his first pair of new shoes. But at church, the deacons laughed at him. His shoes were new, but not fashionable. Embarrassed and hurt, the young deacon said he would never go again to church.”
How we treat each other—especially those who are left out and alone —is how we treat Him. “Inasmuch as ye have done it unto one of the least of these my brethren, ye have done it unto me.”
Elder Gong taught, “‘No one sits alone’ also means no one sits alone emotionally or spiritually.”
Many of your students may feel lonely and isolated. They need kindness to feel authentic belonging.
Elder Gong explained: “There are many reasons we may feel we do not fit in at church [and let me add, at seminary and institute]—that, speaking figuratively, we sit alone. We may worry about our accent, clothes, family situation. Perhaps we feel inadequate, smell of smoke, yearn for moral cleanliness, have broken up with someone and feel hurt and embarrassed, are concerned about this or that Church policy. …We didn’t serve a mission or came home early. The list goes on. Mosiah 18:21 invites us to knit our hearts together in love.”
Elder Gong invited us “to worry less, judge less, be less demanding of others—and, when needed, be less hard on ourselves. We do not create Zion in a day. But each ‘hello,’ each warm gesture, brings Zion closer.”
We have been invited to stand out and be different from the world. Kindness will surely set us apart and show we are “distinct and different in happy ways from … the world.” We let the light of Christ shine in acts of kindness.
I believe that children are naturally kind and can influence adults to be kind also. I also know that children can be taught bigotry and hate. The Book of Mormon is replete with examples.
How do we keep that innate kindness alive in our children? How will we plant the seed of desire in our young people to not only do kind acts but become kind. As a religious educator, you can teach by example and inspire your students to be kind. It is noble and necessary work. Fundamentally, I trust that young people who practice kindness will someday become parents who show and teach kindness in their own homes to their children.
Reflecting on my personal experience, I first practiced kindness with my parents. I observed and helped my mother prepare food for others. We picked grapes every year, and she made the very best grape syrup, which we shared with our neighbors. She visited and cared for those who were sick or hurt. I learned by observation but also because she involved me in her efforts to be kind.
My dad modeled kindness. Growing up, I watched him treat people with genuine interest and love.
Family dinners at a restaurant were always memorable. Hungry and anxious to order our food, we all knew what would happen when the server approached our table. My dad would offer a compliment: “I love your bolo tie. Where did it you get it?” Or make an inquiry: “Yes, I’m here with my family. Tell me about yours.” While my hungry stomach waited, I listened and learned as my dad engaged in kind conversation. Perhaps that is when the seed of my desire was planted, I want to be kind—just like my dad. My dad wasn’t being polite out of obligation. He just loved people! He was genuinely interested in others. His nature and disposition were kind! He followed the example of the Savior—loving others without reservation and seeing beyond any differences that might separate us. He lived the Savior’s invitation to “love one another.” I am deeply grateful for the way he taught me that Christlike kindness can change hearts, strengthen relationships, and bless lives every day.
As a child I was taught these words in Primary:
To a women’s session of general conference President Oaks taught: “As a servant of the Lord, I say to you … , our world needs your goodness and love. Be kind to one another. Jesus taught us to love one another and to treat others as we want to be treated. As we strive to be kind, we draw closer to Him and His loving influence. … If you participate in any meanness or pettiness—individually or with a group—resolve now to change and encourage others to change. That is my counsel, and I give it to you as a servant of the Lord Jesus Christ because His Spirit has prompted me to speak to you about this important subject.”
My present calling as the President of the Relief Society has afforded me opportunities to witness love of neighbor, peacemaking, and kindness on a grand, global scale. I believe that women possess special gifts and propensities to sense human needs and with kindness to comfort, teach, and strengthen. Because of that, our communities depend upon ordinary women for human flourishing and peacemaking.
I make that claim from my lived experience. I have seen women unite in providing consistent acts of kindness and service within their homes and communities. I have seen women elevate one another in the midst of poverty. I have seen women care for, feed, and nurture children who are not their own. I have seen women stand to protect others from the ravages of war.
While the Relief Society will use its global reach to scale these women-inspired efforts, I believe that the most important and impactful work of women and men continues to be done when we teach our own children to listen for understanding, when we practice restraint in responding to hateful speech, when we create classrooms where no one feels isolated or alone. Loving even our adversaries changes our hearts. Avoiding contention sets the tone. And making peace will change the world.
The Lord is not surprised by the challenges we face—contention in the media, the classroom, politics, and the workplace—all are now infected to some degree. The Lord has been preparing us for today and will continue to prepare us for challenges yet to come. We can see this preparation in the consistent message that the Lord’s prophets have been teaching us for decades about the “canker of contention,” the need to be peacemakers, and the reminder of the commandment to love our neighbor and even our adversaries. As disciples of Jesus Christ we follow His admonition to do unto others as we would have them do to us.
The photographs from Artemis and the observations of the spaceship’s crew are a beautiful parallel to prophetic teachings. With a view of the Earth unburdened by borders and boundaries, it is clear—we are all neighbors, we are children of God.
I know that each of us is a beloved son or daughter of heavenly parents. Our Heavenly Father’s plan of happiness is for us to return home. I know that is possible because of Jesus Christ. I love Him. I know that He lives. In the name of Jesus Christ, amen.