"Therefore, my son, see that you are merciful unto your brethren; deal justly, judge righteously, and do good continually; and if ye do all these things then shall ye receive your reward; yea, ye shall have mercy restored unto you again; ye shall have justice restored unto you again; ye shall have a righteous judgment restored unto you again; and ye shall have good restored unto you again.
For that which ye do send out shall return unto you again, and be restored; therefore, the word restoration more fully condemneth the sinner, and justifieth him not at all."
Alma 41:14-15
I think this is interesting, maybe also a little scary... this chapter is talking about the resurrection and how it works... the soul is restored to the body, etc... but part of that seems to be this. That whatever you have done in your life will be restored to you as well. If we have been good and kind and merciful then we will have that restored to us... and if not, we will have whatever we have been restored... and I guess it goes along with a scripture we looked at previously... that he that is happy now shall be happy still, and the opposite. I guess I have been learning this stuff most of my life, but it doesn't always hit you how real it is... how badly we need repentance, and how badly we need the atonement. I think that this principle right here brings it home to me. We have to learn to be good in this life. We can't just live whatever way and then say sorry... not that God won't accept our apology if sincere, he will... he loves us... but that a whole lifetime is going to be restored to us in the resurrection... habits and addictions and obsessions take time and effort to overcome, and even more to build better habits and a better focus to our lives. We all do ugly things in this life at times... but we never want ugliness restored to us. We need to learn to do beautiful things, and send out only things that we want returned... because it all will be.
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