…which Comforter filleth with hope and perfect love, which love endureth by diligence unto prayer, until the end shall come, when all the saints shall dwell with God. (Moroni 8:26)

When I was reading this I understood it in a different way.  I was familiar with the admonition to pray for charity, but here I found out that diligent prayer causes love (charity, the pure love of Christ) to endure.   So, we can pray for charity, but that doesn’t mean that it will always stay with us because situations may come up in which we make mistakes and cause the Spirit to leave, along with charity.   So we have to be diligent about praying for it.

So if diligent prayer causes perfect love to continue, how diligent is “diligent prayer”? 

Maybe it means we should pray every time we feel spiritual emptiness, especially since the verse says the Comforter fills us with hope and perfect love.

My mom once told me that she didn't automatically love me and my siblings when we were born.  She thought there was something wrong with her because of it, but Moroni's admonition to pray for charity sunk into her heart and she decided she would pray to love us.  She said it didn't come immediately, and she had to pray for some time.  (I can't remember whether it was days or months.) She told me that eventually she did begin to love us.  I am inspired by her experience and grateful that she was willing to share it because it showed me that mother love can be cultivated by prayer.  I suppose that love in other types of family relationships can similarly be cultivated if we don't automatically have it.