More than a washing machine...

A few conferences ago President Uchtdorf gave a talk (Your Potential, Your Privilege) on how often times we live far beneath our privileges. He told a story of a man that saved up for a long time to be able to go on a cruise. With little money for the actual trip he packed his own food to last him through the week long vacation. He declined the offers at the end of the day to join other cruise members for dinner, entertainments, and other attractions the cruise offered. It was not until the last day of the cruise he learned that all these things were free of charge and included in the price of his ticket. He had lived FAR below his privileges.

With it being April I have been reflecting a lot on the power that the Atonement can bring into our lives. As I reflected it reminded me of a blog my old missionary trainer wrote about t-shirts. She learned how to take a t-shirt and cut it up and tie it in such a way to make a beautiful scarf and related this to how we often feel like regular old t-shirts, yet we all have the potential to be so much more through Jesus Christ. It made me realize how just like the man on the cruise was only using part of the blessings that came with his cruise ticket, we often only use part of the blessings offered by the Atonement.

The reason I love the Restored Gospel of Jesus Christ is because it teaches the doctrine of exaltation and not salvation alone. It teaches us not only how to return to God's presence (salvation) but also how to return to him LIKE him (exaltation). In essence, it teaches us how to become. We all come to this life as a t-shirt. We will often make mistakes and thus get grease, grass stains, soda stains, mud stains, etc all over ourselves. It is at these times we call upon the powers of the Atonement and get ourselves thrown into the washing machine, perhaps with some extra strength Clorox. This aspect of the Atonement is generally familiar to us and hopefully frequently utilized, BUT, it is only half of the story. If this is the only way we use the Atonement we, like the man on the cruise, will be living beneath our privileges. The power of the Atonement is more than just a cleanser, it is also a refiner. Like the ability the t-shirt has to become a beautiful scarf, we too have the opportunity and ability through Christ to become like Him and our Father in Heaven. All we must do is follow the directions laid out for us. The t-shirt could only become a scarf as the the directions were searched out, studied, and carefully applied. We too must search the words of Christ and follow his gospel laid carefully out for us: faith in Him, repentance, baptism, receiving the gift of the Holy Ghost, and enduring to the end (2 Nephi 31). As we follow these steps we will be able to fully utilize the blessings offered through Christ Atonement and live within our divine privileges so lovingly offered to us.