Practice Makes Permanent

Practice makes perfect, the adage goes, but someone wise corrected that half truth; practice makes permanent. Doing something over and over again will become second nature, but sadly that doesn't guarantee it will be a perfect thing. That is why it is vital we practice things the right way or we'd be better off not practicing at all. This concept became more important to me as I reread a story in the New Testament.

John 12 relates the story of Mary Magdalene anointing Christ with costly oils prior to his death. When Judas seeks to find fault with this action, proclaiming that it was a waste of money that otherwise could have been given to the poor, Christ rebukes him and tells him to "let her alone" for "the poor always ye have with you, but me you have not always." Although a powerful reminder to always putting Christ first (something Mary teaches us by example earlier in Christ's ministry as well) this story was presented to me in another light; the lesson in not serving but being served.

It is often easier to give than receive. We would rather give than feel we owe someone something. We would rather serve than have the embarrassment of needing help. We would rather listen and comfort than humbly speak out of our own pain and sufferings. The very moment we receive we are calculating a mental tab and feel guilty until we feel we have repaid the kindness. Unfortunately, this often doesn't stem from an acute sense of selflessness but rather a malady of pride, pride that not only robs others the blessings that would come from serving us but also the power that would come into our own lives by others kindness and service. But most of all it can be at times a symptom of something else.

The Lord will never give us an aspect of doctrine or commandment to follow without presenting plenty of practice. Most of what we do in life is type or shadow of something to come, a low stakes way to grow in order to be ready when it matters most. The acceptance of others kindness is no exception. As I listened to this familiar Bible story it came to me in an unfamiliar light, and it's truth was burned into my heart. The practice of accepting service is practice for us to accept the kindness and mercy offered us through the Atonement. How often do we feel unworthy, in debt, or too proud to accept forgiveness and spiritual healing? Or tell ourselves that if we ask forgiveness than we will have to read our scriptures longer or be more faithful in our callings? Or even worse, we tell ourselves that we can't ask for forgiveness until we pay extra fast offerings or home teach more than once this week. We somehow get into our minds that the Atonement has a price tag attached until it can be accessed. Nothing could be further from the truth, and this week I finally see a way to be better and do better: let myself be served. Practice the feeling of gratitude instead of feeling in debt. Practice humility instead of pride. Practice receiving and giving back out of love and not obligation. Only then will the practice of accepting the Lord's help become permanent, and our actions in the name of the Lord will be because we are grateful and desire to bless others, not because we feel we must pay God back.

Broken Arms and Run-Down Houses

I think most of us have broken a bone at some point. Luckily for me I have only broken one once; my right arm. After watching some X-Games, at 10 years old I decided to become a professional BMX biker. Naturally, there was no reason to start small, so I grabbed my garage sale mountain bike, a small boulder, and a old piece of plywood to begin my training, because of course, there are few more stable ramps than homemade plywood/boulder ones. Wanting to maximize my height as I jumped, I set my ramp up at the bottom of a hill in my neighborhood. Soon I was speeding like an arrow toward that ramp, and given the crookedness of the top, I began to question the safety of actually going off of it. Panicked, I slammed on my brakes-my front brakes, at just about the time I started off the highly unstable jump. Then, the next thing I remembered was getting up, and looking down to see my horribly bent right wrist.
A kind neighbor helped me home and when I got inside my older brother asked what was wrong, because I was crying. I showed him my wrist and he immediately knew I broke it and went to call our mother. Not wanting to have to go to the doctor I said "it may not be broken, what if its not? Maybe we should just wait and see for awhile, it'll most likely be better tomorrow". Adamant my brother sat me down, called my Mom, and soon I was headed off to my Dad's office. After a few X-rays he was ready to set the bone. I however, was not. I didn't want anyone near my arm, let alone to set it. At first he offered a numbing shot, but as I have an intolerance to sharp things near my person, I declined. Respecting my agency he began to set the bone-it took about 3 seconds for me to yelp like a cat getting its tail ran over. Of course he got the needle out, numbed the arm, and was able to easily set it that time. Soon I was in my new cast and I went from feeling miserable to feeling like a war-hero. I looked at what I deemed as pure torture and had survived it and now had a cool cast to prove it. I couldn't wait for others to sign my cast.

Now before we get to how this relates to the gospel, I have one more story for ya'll to mull over. Well more of a scenario. Let's say we moved into a new home, and it needed a little TLC-picture "Flip this House". The electricity may not work, or the faucets may leak, or the painting job may be an ugly puke green. When we move into a home do we often say "well, it came that way, guess it'll have to stay that way"? Not usually. We may not get around to it, or have the money for it right away, but few would just decide it was impossible to fix those things.
Now for how these both relate to the gospel-
Broken arms: How often have one of us said to ourselves when we have a pain or an injury that we'll just wait and it will most likely get better? People may try to get us to go get checked yet we worry about insurance, time, what the doctor will say, convenience, or even worry nothing is wrong and we'll look weak by going in. As fatal and painful as putting off going to the doctor can be to our bodies, I am here to tell you that our spirits are no different. We all experience mistakes, trials, and hurt in life; in essence we all break our wrists. But just as a bone will never heal right without the touch of a master our souls will never be healed without being set in place by the Master's hands. Under Christ we are all "insured", for "salvation is free". (2 Nephi 2:4) All we need is a copay of faith and humility-a broken heart and a contrite spirit (Enos 1:4-8, 3 Nephi 9:20). He will never mock us for what we believe is wrong or call us weak for coming to Him. No matter how painful the process may be or how long the healing process may take it is worth it, and no matter how badly broken we are, we are always fixable-it is never too late. And in His mercy the Lord sends us His spirit (the numbing shot) to comfort us through the experience. Literally, we are never left alone, and once He is finished our spiritual casts can become a hope to others; our experiences and testimony of our healing can inspire others to go to Christ, and each signature we get just adds to our and Christ's joy as we bring others unto Him.
Run Down Houses-None of us come into this world perfect, and though we often expect ourselves to be, we never seem to believe we ever will be so. We look at so many other "houses" and see all that we aren't, and yet believe our own faults can never be made whole. We begin to say to ourselves "well that is just how I am" and think we are doomed to live in a "house with a leaky faucet forever". That just isn't the case. The Savior has commanded us to be "perfect even as [He] is perfect" (3 Nephi 12:48). We truly are expected to be perfect one day, and rather than discourage us that should make us very excited, for "the Lord giveth no commandments unto the children of men, save he shall prepare a way for them that they may accomplish the thing which he commandeth them." (1 Nephi 3:7). It is possible to make the needed "repairs" in us, in fact, we have everything in our favor to do so. The most exciting thing about the Gospel of Jesus Christ is that it brings with it the good news that we are never stuck with how we came into this world but rather have every possibility of becoming everything we came here to become. All it takes is faith in and obedience to Christ and His Gospel. If we never thought the repairman could fix the faucet, would we ever call? And if we did would we follow the instructions he gave us to fix the problem? Similarly, only when we have faith that Christ can perfect us will we call upon Him, and follow His instructions He gives to us. I testify that when we do so we can become whole, complete, and perfected in Him.

Additional Scriptures:
Matthew 9:22
Mark 9:23-24

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.