Friday, October 3, 2014

Seeking Perfection

I just came across Mosiah 3:19 in my scripture study the other day and it totally gave me a whole new perspective on how I feel and think about the atonement.
Mosiah3:19
 For the natural man is an enemy to God, and has been from the fall of Adam, and will be, forever and ever, unless he yields to the enticings of the Holy Spirit, and putteth off the natrual man and becometh a saint through the atonement of Christ the Lord, and becometh as a child, submissive, meek, humble, patient, full of love, willing to submit to all things which the Lord seeth fit to inflict upon him, even as a child doth submit to his father.

In my pondering I came to realize that I kind of had a negative association with the atonement, which sounds really bad but here is why.

I want to be perfect, which is a wonderful goal, but I want to be perfect now or even yesterday would be nice. So, every time I use the atonement I had this small feeling of failure, of inadequacy, loss of hope of never reaching my goal.

So, reading that by my nature I am a natural enemy to God was so hopeful to me. All of my many many daily mistakes I make is in my nature of being a natural person.... I am not terribly failing... or I am not broken...or there is not something horribly wrong with my brain. That is how I was created... I am a just human; mistakes and sins are inevitable. It is through using the atonement that I can reach my goal, feel whole, and become perfect. Every time I use the wonderful power of the atonement, I am only one step closer to where I need and want to be, not one step back.

The atonement can change all my natural man-ness or women-ness, I guess (which I don’t think are real words). It can grow and develop the divine traits and qualities that I have inherently been born with from the Lord and any other gifts the Lord can bless me with.

Ashley
Who prays daily there is chocolate in heaven... well not everyday but I probably should start

Side Note from Ryanne:
The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints is the same as the church in the Old and New Testament. As in ancient times, there is a prophet and apostles on the earth today. This weekend is General Conference weekend. Tomorrow, Saturday, at 10AM and 2PM mountain time, the Prophet, Apostles, and other discples of Christ will speak to us, lead us, and guide us. On Sunday there are two more sessions at the same times.
You can watch it here

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