Testimony of Elder Nephi Pratt

150 IMPROVEMENT ERA It is either justified by the facts or it is not; it is a right charge or an unjust one. If justified, the one who causes it may do so, in one or two instances, through thoughtlessness or because of a less finely balanced appreciation of the demands and duties of love, for some natures are more wounded by a look than others by a blow. Here a few words of gentle protest may bring a new course of action that is absolutely jealousy-proof. If the offending acts become a continuous performance, then the offender is unworthy of either the love or the jealous)'. But if the constant jealousy be undeserved, the one thus continuously storming in jealous tempest is not worthy of the love and loyalty thus traduced and put to scorn. Nothing weakens loyalty and constancy so quickly as morbid jealousy ; nothing inspires, feeds, strengthens and almost guarantees loyalty and constancy like loving confidence, real comradeship and restful trust. Jealousy, even when justified, should not be permitted to run away with discretion. The emotional pain it may be natural to feel it may not be wise to express. There is a tendency to an emotional explosion that may wreck happiness. It is a moment when one should heed the advice of the sign at a railroad crossing: "Stop, look and listen." The first suspicion in married life may be more hazardous than the first real quarrel. It may develop an exaggerated estimate of the importance of what may have been merely a foolishly indiscreet word or action. The offender, conscious of innocence of real wrong even in thought may become angered and indignant at condemnation many sizes too large for the offense ; apology for the minor thoughtlessness may be withheld or if spoken, ignored in the presence of the injustice of a weightier charge. The burden of injustice becomes shifted to the one originally innocent. If the inadvertence of a moment, now looming large, be but an error of action, not of mind or of heart, it should instantly be forgiven and forgotten because explained and understood. A rankling sense of protest, feeding on trifles, may finally separate the two, unjustly to both. If there be real reason for jealousy in a trifle, wise action may confine it to the trifle. Jealousy through its own indiscreet expression may plant what it fears. Let the wounded one seek to find the cause that led to the action inspiring the jealousy. The