Charity is not an emotion or an action. It is not something we feel or do. Charity is who the Savior is. It is His most defining and dominant attribute. It is what enabled Him to endure the Garden and the cross for you and me. It is one of the things that makes Him God. Thus, when we plead for the gift of charity, we aren’t asking for lovely feelings toward someone who bugs us or someone who has injured or wounded us. We are actually pleading for our very natures to be changed, for our character and disposition to become more and more like the Savior’s, so that we literally feel as He would feel and thus do what He would do. That explains why Mormon said that when the Savior appears, those who have been gifted with charity “shall be like him” for they shall “see him as he is” (Moroni 7:48).
(Book: "If Life Were Easy, It Wouldn’t Be Hard," 2005, p. 56-57)
