In getting ready for the wedding, I’ve been doing a lot of things to prepare for the Temple. I’ve been meeting with my Bishop, and working on reading my scriptures daily. I’ve been trying to grow closer to my Heavenly Father, and my Savior through prayer, and I have come to realize that on a lot of levels, I fall short of what many expect of me, but as I have tried to better prepare myself for the promises that I will be making, I have come to realize a few things:
1. I don’t need to be concerned with what the world thinks of me.
2. I don’t have to be perfect only willing to try.
3. I won’t fall short of my eternal potential if I just keep pushing forward.
4. There will be opposition in all things, and that’s good for me.
To expound… At the end of the day, the most important relationship that I can hope to nurture, other than the relationship with my eternal companion, is my relationship with God, Jesus Christ, and the Holy Ghost. I don’t need to worry about whether or not people think that my life is on the right track, or whether or not they accept my decision in my faith. I don’t need the people who would question my friendship, or my goodness as a person because of how I choose to worship. There are many different faiths, and they work for many different people. If they make them better people then, that’s what matters. This is the faith that I choose to make me a better person. I believe with all of my heart that I have made the choice to join the most correct church.
I don’t have to be perfect. Many people would get hung up on the scriptures in Matthew 5:48, and 3 Nephi 12:48 that ask us to be “PERFECT” like our Father. The perfection being referred to is Man’s potential to become like God. One of the things that I have come to love as I read the scriptures is the fact that my understanding of what is asked of us in this life has become clearer. Often times we dwell on the words that seem impossible. To ask anyone on this earth to be perfect would be setting them up for failure. An example of this is the sacrament prayer (Doctrine and Covenants 20:77). In the blessing said over the bread many people would say that we are promising to do four things: 1. Take upon themselves the name of the Savior 2. Always remember him 3. Keep the commandments 4. Always have the spirit with them. These are great principles, and principles that we should always be striving to abide by. The most important word in this verse (to me) is the word willing. We promise to be willing to do the four things mentioned above. I will admit that throughout my life, and my day to day tasks, and errands, I sometimes have things on mind that I allow to come before my remembrance of the Savior. I get angry, and am unable to have His spirit with me at all times. I am human. I break commandments from time to time, BUT I know that because I am willing to try to do all of those things, because I am willing to try again to do them when I fall short, by taking the sacrament, that I will be blessed. I know that it gets easier over time to DO the things that I say I am willing to do.
I also know that there will always be opposition in the things that I do. I know that the closer I get to my Heavenly Father, the harder the Adversary is going to try to stall my progression. I know that that is the way that it starts. It starts with a stall. By definition, stalling is the stopping of a moving force. It is very hard to turn an arrow around 180 degrees when it is traveling on a set course. Something must first slow, and then stop the arrow before it can be fired in the opposite direction. It is much the same when talking about reaching for the potential of man to become like God. A person who has a close relationship with the Lord is much harder to tempt and lead astray than a person with no spiritual driving force. The closer I become to my Heavenly Father, the more persuasion it is going to take to make me falter. The temptations of the adversary are subtle. They are as subtle as being idle. In 2 Nephi 28: 21 we learn that the devil will pacify, and lull spirits into a carnal security, and will make them believe that everything is well. This is how we allow, and enable the adversary to cheat our souls and lead us carefully down to hell. It’s not a matter of walking to the edge and jumping off. The devil is careful in leading us away from our Father. The closer we get, the more opposition we will find, but on the same note, the closer we become to our Savior, the more careful and thought out the deceit will have to be.
I would like to share my testimony of the potential found in each and every one of us. I know that we are all choice spirit children of our Father in Heaven, and that there is not a trial or pitfall in this life that we cannot overcome. I know that The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints is the most correct church on this earth, and I know that by striving to be willing to do the things that we are asked by the Lord, we can obtain all of the blessings and rewards of reaching our eternal potential to be like our Father in Heaven.
No comments:
Post a Comment