"They Were Forgiven"

Forgiveness is such a central aspect of the gospel, but sometimes it feels like it doesn't apply to us, like no matter what we do, we will never be good enough. In Moroni 6:8 is says, "But as oft as they repented and sought forgiveness, with real intent, they were forgiven." Along with this I think of D&C 58:42: "Behold, he who has repented of his sins, the same is forgiven, and I, the Lord, remember them no more." It is amazing to me that God will continue to forgive us as often as we repent. Everyone has this opportunity. No matter how many times we mess up, how many times we say we'll be better and we slip again, if we keep repenting, we will be forgiven. He loves us, He wants the best for us, and He  believes in us. He has faith that eventually we will overcome our problems. Even when we think there is no way that we can be forgiven or that we will ever be able to become the person we are meant to be, God is there for us, and if we sincerely go to Him, He will help us. And when we repent, He won't remember our sins. He won't hold them over our head and remind us of all the mistakes  we've made. He lets them go and lets us move on. President Gordon B. Hinckley once said, " The Lord did not send you here to fail." He doesn't leave us with no way out of sin. He wants us to come back to Him, become like Him, and receive all the blessings He has to give us.

Trust Him

In Ether 6:5-6 it says, "And it came to pass that the Lord God caused that there should be a furious wind blow upon the face of the waters, towards the promised land; and thus they were tossed upon the waves of the sea before the wind. And it came to pass that they were many times buried in the depths of the sea." Sometimes it is so easy to wonder why God lets us be tossed around and why things have to be so hard. Why can't he just ease up on us a little. It is often hard to see how these trials will ever help us. What good will come of me being sick, losing a loved one, not having friends. I think the best thing we can do when we run into these doubts is to just know that God knows what he's doing, to trust Him, and to know He loves you with an unconditional, eternal love. I had a friend who once said that when he's a dad he would want to protect his kids and make it so they were never hurt. He then went on to say that it shows a lot about how much God loves us knowing that He lets us go through these painful things. He must love us a lot and have so much in store for us if He lets us go through all the horrible things we go through in life. If we will put our faith in God, remember that He knows more than us, and know that He wants us to be happy and will help us to become the incredible person that he knows we can be, then in our times of furious winds and trial, even though they will be painful, we can know that everything is going to be okay.

God's Will For You

Ether 1:41-42 teaches a very important lesson. In this God is telling the brother of Jared to gather all the animals and his family and friends, to go north, and He will meet them there. This shows that we need to follow God's plan for us because our endpoint isn't necessarily God's endpoint for us. He will give us instruction because He knows exactly where we should go. It is often so easy to make plans for our life and think we know exactly what we're doing. We know what we want concerning our education, career, family, etc. It's important to remember that we don't know everything. When we make decisions we need to go to the Lord and make sure that we are aligned with His will. God has so much more to offer us than we could ever imagine. If we only rely on ourselves we will never reach our full potential. Even though we might not always go in the direction we originally thought we would, when we are with the Lord, we will go in the direction that will be best for us, the direction that will lead to us becoming all that we can be. Gordon B. Hinckley once said "I believe that God has likewise chosen each of you for something of consequence in his grand design" and the General Young Women Presidency said "Our Heavenly Father...knows you. He has confidence and faith that you will use these years...in being an obedient child of God who can be molded and shaped for the special mission and destiny he would have you fill." God knows what we can be and if we go to Him we will go places and become someone greater than we ever thought possible.

Happily Ever After

I have always had a preoccupation with fairytales, true love’s kiss, and happily ever afters. The little girl who watched Aladdin every day and wanted to be princess is still in me. And temple marriage is something that I think beautifully encompasses the perfect fairytale that we can have. 4 Nephi 1:11 says, “They were married…and were blessed.” What an amazing little phrase. In this perfect Zion society briefly described by Mormon in 4 Nephi, he chooses to include that they were married and blessed because of it. Marriage is such an important aspect of God’s plan; it’s part of that celestial life that is God’s hope for us. And it is magnificent to reflect on the wonderful institution that marriage is. It is both a “happily ever after” and a “once upon a time” because it does end that search for your prince, but it also opens up the door to eternal families and eternal life. One of my favorite quotes is from President Uchtdorf, where he says, “You are truly royal spirit daughters of Almighty God. You are princesses, destined to become queens. Your own wondrous story has already begun. Your “Once upon a time” is now…And the day will come when you turn the final pages of your own glorious story; there you will read and experience the fulfillment of those blessed and wonderful words: And they lived happily ever after.” This is what temple marriage can bring. Temple marriage gives you the perfect fairytale because it gives you the blessing of forever.

It Will Be Worth It

It is often easy to wonder if it’s all worth it, if everything we have to go through matters. In 3 Nephi 22:7-8 it says, “For a small moment have I forsaken thee, but with great mercies will I gather thee…I hid my face from thee for a moment, but with everlasting kindness will I have mercy on thee.” To me this means that our experience on earth is when God hides His face from us. While we’re here we’re not with Him like we used to be. But He will have mercy on us and let us come back to Him. Sometimes on this earth it will be hard, it will feel like God has forsaken us, like we are completely alone, and like it’s not worth it. But this separation is only for a “small moment,” it is nothing in the grand scheme of things. There is so much more in store for us. If we will follow the Lord, His face will never really be hidden from us. And as a result of our earthly experience and through his mercy, we can receive blessings beyond our comprehension. The wife of my bishop once said in a Sunday school lesson, that when you are kneeling across the altar from your eternal spouse, you will never regret anything you had to do to be there. Likewise, when we are blessed with eternal salvation, we will see that everything from our life mattered and that it was worth all of the horrible and painful things we had to go through to get there.  The Savior never told us it would be easy, He only told us it would be worth it.

We Are Loved

It is so amazing to me how much Christ loves us. There are three instances in 3 Nephi that make this really stick out to me. The first is in chapter 17:1-2. He says that He recognizes that the people are weak and are having a hard time understanding, but instead of giving up on them, He tells them He will come back tomorrow. This shows me that the Savior won’t quit on us. He is so willing to help because we were not sent here to fail. The next witness of His love comes in verse twenty-one, which says, “He wept…and he took their little children, one by one, and blessed them, and prayed unto the Father for them.” First, this scripture shows that we have a God who weeps, and incredible quality for out God to have. I love when it says he prayed for the children and blessed them one by one. This shows that intimate part of the atonement. He cares about each of us individually. He knows exactly how to bless each of us. There is a song that I think captures this perfectly. “When He had a world to save, He had a world of time, to stop and hold a little child. He heals one by one, loves one by one…He knows us one by one. The way He loves you, is one by one.” God doesn’t just love “us,” He loves “you.” The final instance is in chapter 18:31. “For behold I know my sheep, and they are numbered.” He knows and loves us more than we can understand. We are numbered to Him, He knows when we are lost, and He will help bring us back. I think it would help each of us a lot to “Remember the worth of souls,” our soul, “is great in the sight of God” (D&C 18:10).

"Your Father Knoweth"

It is often easy for me to think that God doesn’t really care how my life is going. He probably doesn’t care when I’m overwhelmed with school, when I’m upset that my dating life isn’t going as well as I’d like, or when I feel stressed because I have no idea what I want to do with my life. It is hard for me to feel like Heavenly Father could possibly care about such small matters. But 3 Nephi 13 gives me a better perspective. In verse eight it says, “For your Father knoweth what things ye have need of.” To me this shows that God knows and cares about me, even if it’s sometimes hard to see.  He knows when I’m excited, when I’m sick, when I’m lonely, and when I’m afraid. And it is especially amazing to me to know that God knows and cares when I am sad. Christ feels my pain. In the last General Relief Society Meeting, Sister Linda S. Reeves said, “Our Heavenly Father and our Savior, Jesus Christ, know us and love us. They know when we are in pain or suffering in any way. They do not say, “It’s OK that you’re in pain right now because soon everything is going to be all right…They feel the depth of our suffering.” He doesn’t expect me to be fine because in that moment things aren’t fine. Jesus lets me weep and He weeps with me, and then he helps me to be okay. This shows to me that the Savior really does know “what things [I] have need of,” because it shows He understands me. He truly “remembereth every creature of his creating” (Mosiah 27:30).       

"Will Ye Not Now Return Unto Me"

It is so easy to criticize others and questioning why they do the stupid things they do. When I see someone smoking I just think, “How can you possibly be doing that! You know how dangerous it is! You know it can give you cancer and lung disease and you know it can kill you!” And in my head I can’t fathom why somebody would still smoke. It makes no sense to do something when you know how deadly the consequences are. And then I read 3 Nephi 9:13, which says, “Will ye not now return unto me, and repent of your sins… that I may heal you?” I often have the same attitude as the smoker. I always know the consequences of my actions, even if I sometimes I ignore that label, because I am a fallen human being who sometimes gives in to things that sound good now, but potentially destroy what I really want. And Christ is pleading with us to stop and to go to Him. He gives us a warning and then gives us a way to be completely healed when we don’t listen to Him. And he doesn’t look at us judgmentally when we mess up, like we so often look at others. He is so patient with us. I’m sure that sometimes he just thinks, “Please stop doing this. I can’t bear to watch you do these things when you have so much potential. Please come to me and let me heal you.” His hand is always reaching out to us, and he is so willing to help us, if we will only reach up and let him.

"Could Not Be Frightened"

We live in a scary world. There is disease and war and murder-all kinds of things that we could reasonably be afraid of. Fortunately, we are not left alone through all of this. Because of our Savior we can have hope and we can feel peace. 3 Nephi 3:12 says of the Nephite leader, Lachoneus, that he “was a just man, and could not be frightened by the demands and the threatenings of a robber.” It would be a natural reaction to be terrified if you were threatened by robbers. It is amazing to me to know that the gospel can bring this level of peace to somebody. By knowing that there is a plan in life, a plan that extends much farther than this life, we don’t have to be afraid of wordly things. While there are a lot of bad things that can happen to us, lots of things that could “ruin” our lives, there is no man that can permanently destroy us. Men can make life really awful for us, but if we stay close to the Lord, do what we know we should, and try our best to become like Him, we have nothing to fear. Things will get hard, but things will get better. I love the quote “He never said it would be easy, he said it would be worth it.” This is the lesson we can learn from Lachoneus. We don’t need to fear what men can do to us because the Lord is over all things and we have the potential for celestial glory. 

"They Cannot Fall"

Helaman 5:12 has so many amazing things to learn from it, but there are two main things that stick out to me. The first is when it says, “when the devil shall send forth his mighty winds.” It doesn’t say he might do it, or there’s a possibility that he won’t send any temptations our way, it says when. Satan will go after everyone. Everyone will have trials and temptations, and as the scripture says, they will be mighty. And this seems to make life sound scary and hopeless.  But then this assurance of struggles is followed by an assurance of hope and victory. It says, “because of the rock upon which ye are built…a foundation whereon if men build they cannot fall.” I love that. They cannot fall. We might stumble and trip and falter, but we won’t fall down. Just how there is no doubt that Satan will send adversity our way, there is no doubt that if we will rely on our Savior that we will prevail. Christ didn’t say to us that he might be able to help us out or that he’ll see what he can do, but he might not be able to save us. He promised us that if we will make him our foundation, if we will follow him, he will not fail us. If our lives are centered on him and we try our hardest to become the person that God intended us to be, then the devil cannot prevail over us. With Christ we have the power to overcome all of the mighty winds and storms that we face. With Christ we cannot fall.

Exceedingly Rejoice

When I was watching the Superbowl yesterday, at the end of the game my sister wondered, since the two coaches are brothers, how long the losing brother would be upset with the other brother and not want to talk to him. I immediately thought about Captain Moroni. In Alma 59: 1 it says of Moroni, “he was exceedingly rejoiced because of the welfare, yea, the exceeding success which Helaman had had.” It is amazing to me that Moroni could be so righteous and so concerned with others that he would be happy when someone else got what he was wishing he had. It can be so hard to feel happy about other people’s achievements. But what if we could just love each other enough to feel happy when others are happy? To be happy when they achieve their goals and dreams? This world has so much focus on being the best and making sure you get what you want. And we tend to believe that anyone can achieve success if they work at it. But the moment they do, we feel upset and jealous of them. It would do us a lot of good if we would all try to be a little more like Moroni. What if when our brother won the Superbowl, instead of being bitter about it, we could be “exceedingly rejoiced” because of their success? Or if a coworker got the promotion we had been hoping for and instead of holding a grudge against them we sincerely congratulated them? We would all be so much happier if we would take this little lesson from Moroni and rejoice for others.

Captain Moroni

When I read about Captain Moroni, I can’t help but be in awe. He was such an incredible man. There are a couple instances that really impress me about him. One is in Alma 46: 12 where he creates the title of liberty, which says, “In memory of our God, our religion, and freedom, and our peace, our wives, and our children.” He is a guy who has his priorities straight. He knows what is important to him. You can tell that he cares about God and he cares about his family. Another place is when he is writing a letter to Ammoron regarding Ammoron’s refusal to exchange prisoners on his terms. In Alma 54: 12 he says, “And behold, if ye do not this, I will come against you with my armies; yea, even I will arm my women and my children, and I will come against you and I will follow you even into your own land, which is the land of our first inheritance; yea, and it shall be blood for blood, yea, life for life; and I will give you battle even until you are destroyed from off the face of the earth.” He knows what he wants, he doesn’t give up, and he doesn’t let evil win. It is clear that he is on the Lord’s side. The strength and courage of this man is especially evident in Alma 48: 17, where it says, “Yea, verily, verily I say unto you, if all men had been, and were, and ever would be, like unto Moroni, behold, the very powers of hell would have been shaken forever; yea, the devil would never have power over the hearts of the children of men.” I think he is someone that we could all afford to be a little more like. 

The Atonement

In Alma 36 Alma tells his son Helaman about his repentance and conversion to the gospel. I think this story shows Alma as the epitome of the healing powers that the Atonement can bring. He wasn’t just on the edge of good and bad, he was farther away from God than I think most people ever come close to.  And yet, he repented and turned his life around. He moved on from his mistakes and moved the Lord’s work along. Alma’s life teaches us that it doesn’t matter who you are, where you are, or what you’ve done, the Atonement works for you. No exceptions. President David O. McKay once said that “The purpose of the gospel is to make bad men good and good men better.” Alma shows that it does just that. In Luke 5: 31-32, Christ says, “They that are whole need not a physician, but they that are sick. I came not to call the righteous, but the sinners to repentance." When we mess up, that is when we need Christ the most, not when we should feel like we aren’t worthy to go to him. He wants us to be happy. He wants us to reach our full potential and return to him. And more than anything he wants to help us with it. We are a fallen and sinful people so we need Christ, we literally cannot do it without him. Just like he helped to change Alma, he will help to change us. If we will turn our lives over to Christ he will help to mold us into the person we’re meant to become.

"Ye Shall One Day Rest"

This week in the Book of Mormon I read Alma 34:41 and it really stood out to me. It says, "But that ye have patience, and bear with those afflictions, with a firm hope that ye shall one day rest from all your afflictions." When I see something that says you need to have patience I am quickly reminded of the fact that I have very little. I usually think of patience in terms of being patient with people, but this scripture made me look at it in a different way. I think it is so easy to become frustrated with the situations that we are in, easy to think that everything is going wrong and nothing will ever go right. In the midst of a trial it is hard to see the light at the end of the tunnel. This scripture is both empowering and comforting to me. It reminds me that I need to keep working my hardest in this crazy thing called life, but that there is such an incredible reward at the end. Life is hard. There are so many trials and heartaches and distractions that can keep us from seeing that all these things are temporary, that there is an end to them. But as this scripture says, we need to have a firm, unshakable hope that one day we will no longer suffer, that one day all of our pains will go away. If we will patiently bear our afflictions we receive eternal life, and there is no greater blessing that we could receive. After all, “he never said it would be easy, he only said it would be worth it” (Anonymous).