"The Lord reminds us each week how important these covenants are by allowing us the privilege of renewing them as we partake of the sacrament."
side note for those who may not be familiar: when we partake of the Sacrament, which is bread and water which symbolize the body and blood of our Savior, each Sunday, we are renewing the covenants (or promises to God) we make when we are baptized. The covenants we make at baptism are that we accept Jesus Christ as the Savior, that we will follow him, and that we will keep his commandments, including to bear one another's burdens, to mourn with those that mourn, to comfort those that stand in need of comfort, and to stand as a witness of God at all times, and in all things, and in all places.
"When we honestly take upon ourselves the name of Jesus Christ, always remember Him, and keep His commandments, we will be worthy of His Spirit. This great blessing and gift of the Holy Ghost will guide, direct, and influence us for good throughout our lives."
and this was the kicker for me:
"On the other hand, when we break a commandment, we are actually breaking our word, our promises, and our covenants. We are also being dishonest with the Lord and, as a result, are subverting His work."
When I read this, I realized that it is not only when we break the commandment to comfort those that stand in need of comfort, or another specific baptismal or specific temple covenant, but when we break ANY commandment AT ALL, we are breaking sacred covenants with the Lord. Somehow in my mind, this makes breaking a commandment seem even worse than it already did before. Say for example, a "little sin" (which, we know there are no "little sins" in D&C 1:31 it says "For I the Lord cannot look upon sin with the least degree of allowance") like...I don't know...telling a "little lie"...even for that "little sin", we are sacrificing our eternal potential by breaking covenants with the Lord. Not to overstate it...but, it's kind of a big deal. :/
The covenants we make with him are all encompassing. When we covenant to stand as a witness of God at all times, and in all things, and in all places, it means that we are willing to try hard as imperfect beings to follow him perfectly. It means that we are willing to try again when we falter, because we know that because of Him, we can try again.
If we kept the commandments perfectly, we would be perfect, which is impossible.
The only perfect person who has ever lived is Jesus Christ.
But that is not an excuse to not try. We can be perfected in Him if we let Him help us. Because of Jesus Christ, we all have reason to hope. We can all be sure that He loves us infinitely and immeasurably, and that he wants so much for us to let him change us, to let him renew us and rejuvenate us each day. We need that. We need him. I feel it would be inappropriate to mention the scripture above and not follow it up with the one that comes right after it, especially when mentioning HOPE! It says "Nevertheless, he that repents and does the commandments of the Lord shall be forgiven." (D&C 1:32)
I am so grateful to know who he is, and to know that he truly was who he said he was when he walked among men. I am grateful to know that while I stumble all too often, I can be forgiven and try again. I shudder at the thought of breaking the covenants I have made with him...it hurts my heart to think of hurting him. I know I am so far from perfect and that because of that, I will inevitably mess up a lot...but I want to try.
In all honesty, I do have so much hope to try. And to try again.
Because of Him.
1 comment:
Wonderful post... wonderful!
Post a Comment