It is not uncommon for me to feel nervous or anxious when asked to give a talk but this talk seems a little more so than normal. Maybe for two possible reasons, I know that we are soon departing from this ward family or because today is a holiday, not just any holiday, the holiday that merely focus on the resurrection of our Savior. Christmas is wonderful because we celebrate the birth of our Savior and are grateful for his life. Easter, is a time to contemplate, exactly what He did for us individually, with the events leading to his death and the power He had to overcome death. He lived, died, rose again, and in reality lives for us still today.
Many of you here know that I am a mother, a mother of four active children, my four reasons that when I die, I can say I left this world a better place. There is nothing I want more than for my children to have a good life: a life where they feel loved, cared for, and their needs our met. Motherhood has taught me a plethora of life lessons, even from the beginning. Upon discovering that Jake and I were expecting our first child, a silent battle began: a battle that hospitalized me multiple times and made life unbearable at times for Jake and me, or it seemed unbearable. We had not been married too long, were living in New Mexico and in a new ward for me, so I had not yet established a relationship with my new ward. How were they to know that it was just not my personality to be un-noticed or miss church? There was even a point, while I lay helpless in a hospital bed that my husband was told that the baby or myself may not pull through the next couple months. I can only imagine the feeling of my husband, yet, I wanted nothing more than to give my unborn child life and to make the man of my dreams a father. We survived, and who would have guessed that we would do it three more times, despite the advice of different doctors, however each time became a little more bearable. And I do not regret our decision ever. After the birth of our second child, she became ill and after many tests in the hospital they were uncertain as to why. Days later, we received a phone call that test conclusions let the physicians to diagnose her with salmonella. What? How in the world? But, I knew her poor belly hurt and felt relief that she soon would be given medication since they knew what she was being treated for and this would help my sweet.
Much like, I wanted to anything I could do to give life unto my first child and ease the pains of my second, our Father in Heaven wants to do the exact thing for each of us individually. He also wants us not to feel alone, like I did for several months in New Mexico. The love that our father in heaven has for us must be incomprehensible that he was willing to offer the sacrifice of one of his children for his other children. And oh the love, that Jesus Christ has for us that he was willing to live and die for us. Many people often do not grasp the full concept of the atonement of Christ and believe it is merely for the sinner but are we not all sinners. I stand before you today to testify that the Atonement is for the saint and the sinner and equally as important that it is for me and for you alone. When I reflect on the atonement, I divide into four parts. The powers are: resurrection, redemption, healing, and strengthening.
Because Jesus Christ died and raised again, each person that has ever lived with have the opportunity to be resurrected, to live again. The other areas of the atonement are also free gifts but we must accept them, work for them, and live for them. The price has already been paid for our shortcomings and sins through the Savior’s suffering in Gethsemane. We can all be forgiven and redeemed from the fall of Adam to be able to live with our Heavenly Father again. Those two powers, resurrection and redemption, seem to be more common knowledge among people, so I would like to spend the remainder of my talk focusing on the two not so obvious, healing and strengthening. On my mission, I had a companion that always shared the same spiritual thought when we left a home. The thought came from the book of Alma and up until serving with this sister, it had not occurred to me that the atonement was so much more. The scripture is found in Alma 7:11-12:
“And he shall go forth, suffering pains and afflictions
and temptations of every kind; and this that the word
might be fulfilled which saith he will take upon him
the pains and sicknesses of his people.”
She proceeded to explain that every hardship we endure the Savior endured it for us. It was a few years later, when I was pregnant with my first that I grasped this concept…that I needed the atonement of the Savior for my everyday life. I needed the strength and support that comes with it. When Jake and I were given the assigned topics and left to choose between the two of us, whom would cover which topic, I contemplated both topics, and one evening last week, when I arrived home from work, Jake expressed the one he preferred and not by coincidence, earlier that evening I had the same thought. So, topics were chosen and I knew I could relate the previous two stories. Later, as I was reading the Ensign this week, a talk very similar stood out. Elder Bednar teaches us that the atonement increases our capacity to overcome desires of the flesh and temptations. He continues “it is one thing to know that Jesus Christ came to earth to die for us- that is fundamental and foundational to the doctrine of Christ. But we also need to appreciate that the Lord desires, through His Atonement and by the power of the Holy Ghost, to live in us- not only to direct us but also to empower us.” It provides help for us to overcome and avoid bad and to do good and become good. The enabling power of the Atonement strengthens us to do and be good and to serve beyond our own individual desire and natural capacity.
Not too long ago, we were speaking with one of our friends, this was a very good person but they were having difficulties with another person. Unfortunately, it is not always easy like everyone or to agree with them. After a brief conversation, I challenged our friend to pray for their heart to be softened towards the person that offended them and to pray for the other person by name. A few days passed and we were speaking with our friend, they expressed that almost immediately after or maybe even during their prayer that evening, they felt a comforted and it worked. It was a manifestation in their life of the Spirit. I testify to you today that it was not only Spirit comforting that person but it was the Atonement becoming applicable in their live as well. The Atonement of Christ “healed” them, maybe not physically but it “healed” emotionally and spiritually, There is nothing more than the Father and Savior want than for us to utilize the saving power of the Atonement. The scriptures teach us that the desire of our Heavenly Father is to save the souls of man, we read in Moses 1:39 “For behold this is my work and my glory to bring to pass the immortality and eternal life of man.” The Atonement is the only way that mission can be accomplished.
Last Sunday in general conference, Elder Uchtdorf, expressed some of the individual desires that we have and counseled us the solution. A bumper sticker saying, now famous among Latter Day Saints states: “Don’t judge me because I sin differently than you” and proceeded to state: When it comes to hating, gossiping, ignoring, ridiculing, holding grudges, or wanting to cause harm, please apply the following... STOP IT!
The solution to “stop it”, seems easy but we need the atonement to empower us to achieve this goal. The atonement of the Savior has a personal application to each person individually. Pregnancy was the first time that I recall a dependency upon the atonement. I learned, as Elder Bednar taught that “as you and I come to understand and employ the enabling power of the atonement in our personal lives, we will pray for strength to change our circumstances rather than praying for our circumstances to be changed.” Our afflictions and shortcomings will not be removed but we will have the strength to bear them or deal with them. Through the power of the atonement, we find strength to do things we could never do on our own. It is imperative that we rely on the atonement in every aspect of our life.
“The grace of Christ is manifest in every aspect of the Atonement—in deliverance from physical death and deliverance from fallen mortality. That is, the Savior delivers us from both the grave and ourselves—from carnality as well as from our carelessness and inadequacies. In short, the Atonement is not just for sinners: "The Atonement not only pays for our sins, it heals our wounds—the self-inflicted ones and those inflicted from sources beyond our control. The Atonement also completes the process of our learning by perfecting our nature and making us whole. In this way, Christ's Atonement makes us as he is".
Brad Wilcox explains how Christ's Atonement is not something we only need once in awhile but continuously throughout our lives, and that it's always available to us, no matter how often we sin. "If we view the Atonement as only a way to be resurrected after we die, what motivates us to live? If we view the Atonement as only a way to clean up after the messes we have made, what motivates us to avoid making messes? If we view the Atonement as only a comforting support when we deal with hurts and illnesses, why are we required to go through such trials in the first place? What motivates us to learn from those experiences rather than just endure them? In each case, the answers we seek are found only as we look beyond Christ's saving role to His redeeming role. As Latter-day Saints, we know not only what Jesus saved us from but also what He redeemed us for. We must be renewed, refined, and ultimately perfected in Him"
It is my prayer that we each apply the atoning blood of the Savior in our lives, all four aspects or powers of it: healing, strengthening, resurrection, and redemption. May we receive the strengthening power of His sacrifice in our silent battles and overcome them. Jesus Christ is not just our Savior but He is also our Redeemer. May we become renewed, refined, and perfected through Him.
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