"And now behold, is the meaning of the word restoration to take a thing of a natural state and place it in an unnatural state, or to place it in a state opposite to its nature?"
Alma 41:12
This is interesting. In context this is talking about the restoration that will happen to us after this life. Everything that we have been in our lives will be restored to us... if we've been and done good, then we will be restored to good, and if we've been and done evil, then we will be restored to evil. It's a good reminder that, even though we want to believe that we can do whatever we want and still get eternal perfection later... it doesn't really work that way. We'll get back what we really are. Of course, with repentance and change taken into account... but if we don't learn to be good people in this life, we won't suddenly become good later.
I was also thinking today about the restoration of the gospel (probably because I am teaching a Sunday School lesson on it later). And maybe this is a good question in that context too. The gospel was restored to what it eternally IS. You can't build a new gospel or make something up and call it the gospel just because you have one shard of truth that makes sense. The gospel isn't some fluid moldable play-dough structure that we can change to fit our personal needs. The gospel is God, and his church. If something needs to change so that we and the gospel fit together... *we* need to be the play-dough, fitting ourselves into the good mold, and getting rid of the hardened and evil parts. We don't change God; he changes us. And thank goodness that he is willing to help us change when we ask, or we would be stuck as we are forever. We would be petty, whiny, selfish children forever. Today, let's be willing to change... not because God wants us all to be the same, but because God wants us all to be good... to learn and to grow up into our potential. Let's embrace the restored gospel, and pray that we can all one day be restored to good, and joy, and enjoy forever what we have learned to become here and now.
Alma 41:12
This is interesting. In context this is talking about the restoration that will happen to us after this life. Everything that we have been in our lives will be restored to us... if we've been and done good, then we will be restored to good, and if we've been and done evil, then we will be restored to evil. It's a good reminder that, even though we want to believe that we can do whatever we want and still get eternal perfection later... it doesn't really work that way. We'll get back what we really are. Of course, with repentance and change taken into account... but if we don't learn to be good people in this life, we won't suddenly become good later.
I was also thinking today about the restoration of the gospel (probably because I am teaching a Sunday School lesson on it later). And maybe this is a good question in that context too. The gospel was restored to what it eternally IS. You can't build a new gospel or make something up and call it the gospel just because you have one shard of truth that makes sense. The gospel isn't some fluid moldable play-dough structure that we can change to fit our personal needs. The gospel is God, and his church. If something needs to change so that we and the gospel fit together... *we* need to be the play-dough, fitting ourselves into the good mold, and getting rid of the hardened and evil parts. We don't change God; he changes us. And thank goodness that he is willing to help us change when we ask, or we would be stuck as we are forever. We would be petty, whiny, selfish children forever. Today, let's be willing to change... not because God wants us all to be the same, but because God wants us all to be good... to learn and to grow up into our potential. Let's embrace the restored gospel, and pray that we can all one day be restored to good, and joy, and enjoy forever what we have learned to become here and now.
No comments:
Post a Comment