God's Love For Us

"....He chastened them; yea, in the days of their iniquities hath he chastened them because he loveth them." (Helaman 15:3)

I know, and I think that most people know of, God's love for us despite our follies and short-comings. But do we really believe this?  Often, we are the most hard on ourselves I think.  I met a cab driver recently back east.  As we talked, it came up that I am LDS (Mormon).  He began to tell me how he was baptized and was active in the church for awhile, but then his life started to fall apart and he no longer goes to church.  He said, "I know that what the church teaches is true, but I'm disappointed in decisions I've made.  I need to get that worked out before I come back."  He was missing the whole point.  The church is not for the perfect but rather those trying to be better.  "We love him, because he first loved us." (1 John 4:19).  Heavenly Father and Christ's love for us is eternal and always forth-coming.

Although I don't always claim to have been exactly on the straight path,  I've always been able to see through dark mists that God indeed loved me despite it all, and therefore that gave me strength to make the necessary changes to come back onto the right path.   His love is always there for the sinner AND for the repentent.  He cannot tolerate the sin, but he loves us in-spite of the sin.  If you feel like God does not love you, simply pray sincerely and ask...you WILL feel it because He does and I've felt and continue to feel it.

To Act for Ourselves...

"For Behold, Ye Are Free, ye are permitted to act for yourselves; for behold, God hath given unto you a knowledge and he hath made you free. He hath given unto you that ye might know good from evil, and he hath given unto you that ye might choose life or death; and ye can do good and be restored unto that which is good, or have that which is good restored unto you; or ye can do evil, and have that which is evil restored unto you." (Helman 14:30-31)

I find free agency an interesting thing.  Often I find myself contemplating what I want now for what I want in the future and the future is a hard thing to imagine when it comes to the next life.  It's obvious that major wrong decisions hamper our spiritual well-being and probably the outcome in the next life (without repentance), but what about the smaller things?  I feel like sometimes I'm always doing a balancing act.  BUT, I soon realize that is because my life is not inline with where it needs to be.   The balancing act comes from falling to far to the left.  Imagine a straight line.  Our job is to stay on that path and the Lord helps us stay on that path through the scriptures, prayer and the Spirit.  When we cross the path more than staying on it, it is because we let temptations, however small, pull us one direction or the other rather than staying on the path.  That being said, it is the divine plan of the Savior to let us make those decisions and use repentance to correct when we're off.  I'm grateful for the foresight and love of our Heavenly Father to give us that chance and know it is part of the Plan of Salvation.

Why We Celebrate...

Forgivness

"How wonderful that God should endow us with this sensitive yet strong guide we call a conscience!  Someone has aptly remarked that 'conscience is a celestial spark which God has put into every man for the purpose of saving his soul.' Certainly it is the instrument which awakens the should to consciousness of sin, spurs a person to make up his mind and adjust, to convict himself of the transgression without soft-pedaling or minimizing the error, to be willing to face facts, meet the issue and pay necessary penalties---and until the person is in this frame of mind he has not begun to repent.  To be sorry is an approach, to abandon the act of error is a beginning, but until one's conscience has been sufficiently stirred to cause him to move in the matter, so long as there are excuses and rationalizations, one has hardly begun his approach to forgiveness.  This is what Alma meant in telling his son Corianton that 'none but the truly penitent are saved' (Alma 42:24).

(Spencer W. Kimball, Miracle of Forgiveness, pg. 152)

The Resurrection & Eternal Families

The resurrection is a gift from God that requires nothing from us.  We will all be resurrected despite our behavior, good or bad, in this life.  What happens after is up to us.  I am so grateful for that hope that the resurrection provides.  I know that it doesn't simply end with this life.  The relationships we build in this life continue onto the next.  Knowing that I can be with my wife and children forever gives me motivation to be the best I can be and treat them with the perspective that this relationship is eternal.  The ability to be sealed forever as a family unit that cannot be broken by even the bands of death is done in a temple by someone who has the authority to do that.  Living my life so I am able to attend the temple and honor those promises I made is paramount.