When people receive counseling, they often say they are depressed, or they are anxious, or they are addicted. We prefer they say “I am struggling with depression,” or “I’m struggling with anxiety,” or “I’m struggling with addiction.” In the church’s Addiction Recovery Program, during introductions, many will say, “My name is Bill and I am an addict.” It is nice to hear the phrase “I am a recovering addict.” What is the difference? Instead of a label, there is the ability to change. There is a behavior to work on.

How often do we label ourselves? How often do we label others? What are we trying to accomplish? What are we running to or running from? How will it make a difference?

Some labels include procrastinator, lazy, dumb, self-centered, thoughtless, etc. Some positive labels might include outstanding, smart, amazing, brainiac, athletic, etc. Right now you are probably thinking of many more. Are labels good or bad? Are we trying to lift someone up or are we trying to make ourselves look good? Are labels motivating or do they paralyze us? I would submit that most labels separate us individually and cause us to lose our most common uplifting label: child of God.

President Dallin H. Oaks taught us to consider the labels we use by asking the question: “Where will this lead?” He said that asking that question is important in choosing how we label or think of ourselves. He continued: “Most important, each of us is a child of God with a potential destiny of eternal life. Every other label, even including occupation, race, physical characteristics, or honors, is temporary or trivial in eternal terms. Don’t choose to label yourselves or think of yourselves in terms that put a limit on a goal for which you might strive.” (Where Will This Lead, General Conference, April 2019.)

President Jeffrey R. Holland has said, “Friends, in our present moment we find all manner of divisions and subdivisions, sets and subsets, digital tribes and political identities, with more than enough hostility to go around. Might we ask ourselves if a “higher and holier” life, to use President Russell M. Nelson’s phrase, is something we could seek? When doing so, we would do well to remember that stunning period in the Book of Mormon in which those people asked and answered that question so affirmatively:

“And it came to pass that there was no contention among all the people, in all the land … because of the love of God which did dwell in the hearts of the people.”

“And there were no envyings, nor strifes, … nor any manner of lasciviousness; and surely there could not be a happier people among all the people who had been created by the hand of God. “There were no robbers, nor murderers, neither were there Lamanites, nor any manner of -ites; but they were in one, the children of Christ, and heirs to the kingdom of God…And how blessed were they!”

President Holland identified the key to this contented, happy living is “The love of God … did dwell in the hearts of the people.” He reminded us “When the love of God sets the tone for our own lives, for our relationships to each other and ultimately our feeling for all humankind, then old distinctions, limiting labels, and artificial divisions begin to pass away, and peace increases. That is precisely what happened in our Book of Mormon example. No longer were there Lamanites, or Jacobites, or Josephites, or Zoramites. There were no “-ites” at all. The people had taken on just one transcendent identity. They were all, it says, to be known as “the children of Christ.”

“It is then, and really only then,” said Elder Holland, “that we can effectively keep the second great commandment in ways that are not superficial or trivial. If we love God enough to try to be fully faithful to Him, He will give us the ability, the capacity, the will, and the way to love our neighbor and ourselves. Perhaps then we will be able to say once again, “There could not be a happier people among all the people who had been created by the hand of God.” (The Greatest Possession, General Conference, October 2021.)

May the Lord bless us to drop the negative labels, eliminate contention and the “ -ites,” that we might become a happier people as His children.