D&C 46

Seek ye earnestly the best gifts

                I have wondered about what gifts I possess; at first I could not really determine anything. After looking over my patriarchal blessing I have seen the blessings I have been promised. One thing that is mentioned at least three times is that I am intelligent. Although I do not see myself that way, but heck, maybe I am intelligent! It does not say I am a genius and maybe it is a gift I need to work on, to magnify through study and prayer.

                My dad always makes fun of the fact that his blessing says that he will have “clarity of mind” in his old age. He chuckles and usually says something to the effect of, “I can’t wait to get old I could really use some clarity of mind.” The gifts of spirit differ for us all, and from what I have seen the gifts come to us at different times. My dad will probably need clarity of mind the most in his old age that is why it is promised to him then.

                What I really wouldn’t mind having is the gift to be comforted. Sometimes I feel like that is my worst problem. I can become all flustered and stressed, and then it is hard to just calm myself down or to be comforted by other people. Also to just feel at peace when things go wrong would be great, particularly now when I am far away from home, away from my parents and family.  

The Atonement

The Atonement is the most beautiful thing created by Heavenly Father. It is a sound and ingenious plan that allows His children the hope and way to come back to Him and join Him in the highest kingdom of Heaven forever.  While reading some talks I found a few things particularly moving in the plan.

Elder David B. Haight uses the scripture John 16:33, “these things I have spoken unto you, that in me ye might have peace. In the world ye shall have tribulation: but be of good cheer; I have overcome the world.” The Lord, Jesus Christ, has overcome the world. Although He was betrayed, mocked, and beaten in the end He had won, He had overcome the world. Evil cannot stop the works of the Lord. They can fight and torment, but shall never prevail against those who are serving righteously and doing the good works God has given them to do.  This fact gives me courage. Although at times I may feel like I am losing the fight, I have already won. The Savior has made the way for victory and I too can overcome the world.

The Savior made the way for us through His suffering. Sometimes I feel as if Heavenly Father and Jesus Christ are abstract beings. It is hard to imagine them being like me, being able to understand what I am feeling. They do understand. Jesus, in the Garden of Gethsemane, felt every pain of mine, from small bruises to deep heart ache. He has cried the tears I have cried and has worried about the same things I worry about now. The atonement can work for me because the pain He felt was my pain.  “Which suffering caused myself, even God, the greatest of all, to tremble because of pain, and to bleed at every pore, …” He could feel it physically and emotionally. He didn’t understand pain or sympathize with it, He knew it.

It is a terrifying thought to think that the Savior suffered my pain. Every heart ache and mistake that I make adds to the pain He felt. There is a reason he suffered all of this for me. If I can repent, I do not have to suffer as He did. This is the ingenious part of the Heavenly Father’s plan. All things need balance. Someone needs to pay the price. Jesus paid the price for my sins because He and Heavenly Father knew that I was not strong enough to pay for them myself. Although I still have consequences for my actions, through the atonement I can be made clean. I do not have to suffer the extreme and eternal consequences for my actions if I repent because Jesus has already paid that price.

D&C 24: 8

 “Be patient in afflictions, for thou shalt have many; but endure them, for, lo, I am with thee, even unto the end of thy days.”

                ‘For thou shalt have many’, isn’t that the truth? Sometimes it feels like once you have knocked down one trial another one pops back up. Our trials will keep coming, but we should not fear. We are more than capable of handling our trials especially with the help of our Heavenly Father. He has promised us that He will be with us always to help us with our trials. All we have to do is reach out to Him and let Him help us.

                Trials are for the most part not to punish us. They are also not to make us feel weak and realized our faults, but to help us realize our strengths. We are strong, stronger than we think with the Lord on our side. This reminds me of the resiliency principle I learned about in my Family Processes class. The principle says that people are capable of handling more than they think they can at first. For instance a person who is seeing cannot imagine living a life blind. Those people who have lost their eyesight do not simply die, they live on, and they live quite well. We don’t know what we can handle until we have dealt with it. This principle is not due to some genetic mutation in human beings, but because we are divine beings with the assistance of a greater power, Heavenly Father.

                The first part says we should endure our afflictions with patience. For me this is the hardest part. I know that I will get out of my trial, but I am so focused on getting out of it, I do not stop to think of what I should be learning from this experience and the experience is wasted and often times repeated.

1 Nephi 20: 10-11

"For behold, I have refined thee, I have chosen thee in the furnace of affliction. For mine own sake, yea, for mine own sake will I do this, for I will not suffer my name to be polluted, and I will not give my glory unto another."

Jesus has given up so much for us. He has been treated poorly and suffered all things because he loves us.
1 Nephi 19: 9, "And the world, because of their iniquity, shall judge him to be a thing of naught: wherefore they scourge him, and he suffereth it; and they smite him, and he suffereth it. Yea, they spit upon him, and he suffereth it, because of his loving kindness and his long-suffering towards the children of men."

All that he claims for himself is his name. His name is sacred and powerful. It is truth and honor. When we are baptized we take upon ourselves his name and he expects it to be cared for and upheld. He will test us with trials and obstacles to make us more worthy to carry his name, to bear all things even as he has. If all that he requests is that we not defile his name, shouldn't we be able to act in a manner best fitting to fulfill his only wish? We should live our lives in a way that would make Jesus happy to have given us his name.

Introduction

My D&C teacher last semester had us keep a scripture journal once a week. I really liked that idea becuase it really got me to think about the scriptures on a more personal level. For this reason I shall keep one here for all of you to read. Basically it will be the insights I have gleaned from the scriptures as they apply to me. What I write I can not garauntee will be doctrinally sound, but I hope that you gain a testimony from the small testimony I will be bearing once a week.