Sunday, January 1, 2012

Insights

I finished reading the Book of Mormon last night. I could have finished it a day earlier, but I wanted to end the year on a positive note. So, with about an hour left in the year I finished it...again.

Oh, how I love that book. How I love the Prophets, the testimonies, the examples of good, righteous faithful saints. They inspire me.

Last night as I was reading the final chapter in Moroni, I read -


 18 And I would exhort you, my beloved brethren, that ye remember that aevery good bgift cometh of Christ.
 19 And I would exhort you, my beloved brethren, that ye remember that he is the asame yesterday, today, and forever, and that all these gifts of which I have spoken, which are spiritual, never will be done away, even as long as the world shall stand, only according to the bunbelief of the children of men.
 20 Wherefore, there must be afaith; and if there must be faith there must also be hope; and if there must be hope there must also be charity.
 21 And except ye have acharity ye can in nowise be saved in the kingdom of God; neither can ye be saved in the kingdom of God if ye have not faith; neither can ye if ye have no hope.
 22 And if ye have no hope ye must needs be in adespair; and despair cometh because of iniquity.
 23 And Christ truly said unto our fathers: aIf ye have faith ye can do all things which are expedient unto me.
 24 And now I speak unto all the ends of the earth—that if the day cometh that the power and gifts of God shall be done away among you, it shall be abecause of bunbelief.

As I read I was thinking in terms of goals for the coming year. I thought of all the goals that I have made and not kept...and I thought that as we apply these principles we should be able to meet those goals. First, we need to have faith - that we can accomplish said goal and that we can attain help through the Spirit, hence our Savior, Jesus Christ. Second, that we need to have hope in accomplishing said goal. Third, and finally, that we need to have Charity - the pure love of Christ - for ourselves. That was the clincher for me. So often when I find I have failed at my attempts at goals I berate myself - I am not kind nor understanding of my personal weaknesses.

As I considered this I realized that Christ would not berate us -He would lovingly (figuratively speaking, of course) take us by the hand, help us get through whatever obstacles we have placed in our paths, and help us along our way. Somehow we need to do that for ourselves - to be more kind, less judgmental, and certainly more understanding and accepting. We need to celebrate the accomplishments we have made, realize that perhaps we hit one of those obstacles and not use it as an excuse to stop our progress, but rather find a way around that obstacle, with faith and hope that we can achieve said goal.

I apologize for being so long-winded. I am not an eloquent person, and I hope this has come through the way it was intended. I am grateful for the insights found in the scriptures, for personal revelation, and for the opportunity we have to testify to one another, and to hopefully, help each other along life's paths.

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