"Having gone according to their own carnal wills and desires; having never called upon the Lord while the arms of mercy were extended towards them; for the arms of mercy were extended towards them, and they would not; they being warned of their iniquities and yet they would not depart from them; and they were commanded to repent and yet they would not repent."
Mosiah 16:12
I think that we think of God as mean sometimes, especially when we read scriptures like this. ... It can seem like he is mad at us, and we've done everything wrong, so we start feeling bad. Which, of course, is silly. :) The point of scriptures like this is to warn us not to make common mistakes, not to condemn us. God's arms of mercy are there, open for us. He loves us, and wants us to take advantage of the plan of repentance. He is working so hard to get us to see our mistakes, and to do what we can to correct them... but usually we just feel persecuted. I think the reason is that we just don't want to give up our sins, whatever they are for each of us. We have to know ourselves better, we have to do some mental and spiritual work to get to the point where we understand God's point of view. :) We persist in thinking that we're smarter than God, and although that is pretty out there, somehow by not bringing it to the front of our minds, we are able to believe it. Let's take a good look at ourselves today... and I do mean ourselves, not how this applies to persons B, C, or D. What do we, personally, need to repent of? Why aren't we doing it? God's arms of mercy are extended to us... let's walk into them.
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