Today in gospel doctrine we had a great lesson on the Atonement of Christ and what it means in our lives. The spirit was strong as it bore witness of the truthfulness and the importance of this great event. When we got home, I watched this "Mormon Message" on service to others and it provoked a new thought in my mind:
We're told that in order to serve God we need to serve others. We are commanded to mourn with those that mourn, and comfort those that stand in need of comfort. I think we find this difficult today. Or at least I find this difficult for me. I find it hard at times to become absolutely sympathetic, and especially empathetic, to others' problems on a regular basis. But then I realized something: When someone close to me has gone through something challenging I am that much more likely to reach out to others I may not be close to who have a similar struggle. For instance, if my brother had lost his wife, I would be very sympathetic to a man I know at church, down the street, or even in the grocery store who had also lost his wife. I would want to help him and look for ways to do so. Christ has felt everything. He has felt what if feels like to have addictions, to feel intense sorrow, to loose a child, etc. And since I should be striving to grow closer to the Savior, the one person that has gone through everything, and have Him as my best, most perfect friend, then I should be loving, serviceable, charitable, and sympathetic, mourning with those that mourn, towards everyone no matter what the problem because no matter what the struggle, my best friend has felt that and I want to provide comfort.
I'm sure you're all thinking, "Um, duh Britney. I knew this all along." I guess that too often I'm good at hearing really good lessons, but not listening and having them become a part of my life.
I hope this all made sense. It's difficult for me to put feelings into words, which is why it's probably difficult for me to put words into feelings until the spirit can carry those words into my heart.
I hope you all had a beautiful, peaceful, restful Sabbath, full of spiritual rejuvenation and worship.
xoxo
Thanks for this, Britney. It's really good to have little reminders (and for me, I need them a lot!). I had to work yesterday, so this was a good spiritual start to my week since I couldn't go to church.
ReplyDeleteI'm so sad I missed you last week! Hope you're all doing well!
such a beautiful, inspiring post britney :) thank you for sharing your thoughts! You're so right...i absolutely believe that part of the reason we're given trials is so that we can help others when they go through similar experiences...our once broken hearts can help mend theirs. And thank goodness for Christ who was so selfless to go through it all so we're NEVER alone. what a blessing :)
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