A bent branch does not mean a bad tree.
- Jesus promises to reunite our spirit and body through the Atonement.
- {Missed this} Christ heals our hearts?
- “Atonement—at-one-ment in Christ—comes as we exercise faith and bring forth fruits unto repentance.”
- God knows and loves us perfectly—with perfect mercy and justice.
- The Lord gives us divine opportunity to become more like Him by doing proxy temple work.
- There is a symmetry between forgiveness and repentance. As we are willing to offer forgiveness we will have more capacity to repent and receive forgiveness.
As we come to our Savior…we judge less and forgive more.
“Happy and forever” are not the imaginary stuff of fairy tales. True, enduring joy and eternity with those we love are the very essence of God’s plan of happiness. His lovingly prepared way can make our eternal journey happy and forever.
Temple ordinances do not of themselves change us or those in the spirit world. But these divine ordinances enable sanctifying covenants with the Lord, which can bring harmony with Him and each other.
Our joy becomes full as we feel Jesus Christ’s grace and forgiveness for us. And as we offer the miracle of His grace and forgiveness to each other, the mercy we receive and the mercy we offer can help make life’s injustices just.
By offering mercy we can assist the process of making injustices just.
Gratefully, we know the living and “the dead who repent will be redeemed, through obedience to the ordinances of the house of God” and Christ’s Atonement. In the spirit world, even those in sin and transgression have opportunity to repent.
In contrast, those who deliberately choose wickedness, who consciously procrastinate repentance, or who in any premeditated or knowing way break the commandments, planning for easy repentance, will be judged by God and a “bright recollection of all [their] guilt.” We cannot knowingly sin on Saturday, then expect automatic forgiveness by partaking of the sacrament on Sunday. To missionaries or others who say following the Spirit means not having to obey mission standards or the commandments, please remember that obeying mission standards and the commandments invite the Spirit. We should none of us put off repentance. The blessings of repentance begin as we begin to repent.
Until we have begun to repent we can’t expect the blessings of repentance. Once we begin to repent the Lord can forgive as rapidly as He deems warranted.
As the Golden Rule teaches, a sanctifying symmetry in repentance and forgiveness invites us each to offer others that which we ourselves need and desire.
Sometimes our willingness to forgive someone else enables both them and us to believe we can repent and be forgiven. Sometimes a willingness to repent and an ability to forgive come at different times. Our Savior is our Mediator with God, but He also helps bring us to ourselves and each other as we come to Him.
The Lord, who sees and understands perfectly, forgives whom He will; we (being imperfect) are to forgive all. As we come to our Savior, we focus less on ourselves. We judge less and forgive more. Trusting His merits, mercy, and grace can free us from contention, anger, abuse, abandonment, unfairness, and the physical and mental challenges that sometimes come with a physical body in a mortal world. Happy and forever do not mean that every relationship will be happy and forever.
We would be presumptuous to assume that we can always predict which relationships will be happy and forever.
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