"I give unto men weakness that they may be humble; and my grace is sufficient for all men that humble themselves before me"

The prophet Moroni leaves us no room to question -- even the greatest men on earth have weaknesses. But with this guarantee is also the promise that these weaknesses do not have to be permanent.  In the same breath Moroni testifies of weaknesses as well as strengths -- when we turn to God humbly and have faith in Him, "[his] grace is sufficient for all men.... [that he may make] weak things become strong unto them." In this turning to God, God not only helps us strengthen our weakness, but also helps us more clearly identify what the weakness is: "if men come unto me, I will show unto them their weakness." I don't know about you, but sometimes that is half the battle for me -- simply knowing why in the world it is that I keep messing up! So when it comes to school work, life goals, relationships, and family matters, I am grateful for a God who wants me to turn to him. And I'm thankful that when I do, he will teach me what really needs fixing and also assist me with His power in fixing it. What a wonderful Heavenly Father we have! I invite you to humbly turn to God and let his grace bless you with strength.

"With everlasting kindness will I have mercy on thee"

Among all of the truths taught by Jesus Christ in the Book of Mormon -- almost none are more precious to me than the truth that I can repent. Nothing, in my mind, is more aching to the soul than to realize that I really have offended God and gone against what I know is right to do.  In those moments, even while fully recognizing that literally everyone has sinned and messed up like me, it still sometimes feels like I can never be forgiven. That I can never be good and clean again.  That I will always have this sin in my pocket -- no matter how bad I wish I could re-do something. For these moments, when we have lost the spirit of the Lord because of sin, Christ gives us this promise: "For a small moment have I forsaken thee, but with great mercies will I gather thee... with everlasting kindness will I have mercy on thee... my kindness shall not depart from thee, neither shall the covenant of my peace be removed." (3 Nephi 22: 7-10) There are two important truths that I have learned to love from these verses:

1. Sin separates us from God. -- As painful as that sounds and as hard as it may be to come to terms with, it is true.  It IS possible to lose the presence of God and offend his spirit that it is not with us. However, whether or not we do that is within our control.
2. God's mercy, kindness, and peace do not have to be permanently removed. -- We are promised that as we turn to God, recognize what we have done, and take the steps to repent, we can be fully forgiven and enjoy the kindness and peace of the Lord. It may be hard to comprehend, and Satan will tempt you to think otherwise -- but it is completely true.  We can be completely forgiven through the Lord's mercy and have peace restored to a life that is in distress.

Repentance really is the most hopeful word in this gospel -- every single one of us will need it, so you never need feel alone in the process. And remember, the Lord says that even when we do sin and need to repent, it does not have to be a long dreary process -- he himself describes it as "a small moment." I don't know exactly how it works, and situations vary, but I imagine the Lord will not hesitate even a moment longer than necessary in coming to our aid when we ask. Our sins will not define us nor confine us, that is the truth found in Jesus Christ.

"Whoso cometh unto me as a little child, him will I receive"

Working at a preschool, I get to spend a fair amount of time around little children every day and what has impressed me the most is there complete willingness to love. Without any compulsory means or sweet-talking, they instinctively reach out to hold my hand or give me a hug ... hardly knowing me! In any card I receive from them, I never fail to get a number of "I love you's". In fact, the other day a little girl was telling me about her new stuffed animal and before I knew it she was spouting out her home address asking me to come to her house and visit! They love first -- and question second. I thought of this as I read what Christ himself told the Nephites about what the Kingdom of God is like: "Therefore, whoso repenteth and cometh unto me as a little child, him will I receive, for of such is the Kingdom of God." (3 Nephi 9:22) It's easy to see why Christ cherishes children so much -- they cherish Him. Among other wonderful characteristics, children remind us of the true essence of the gospel of Jesus Christ. And despite all of the things we need to teach them, we would do well to take a view notes in the process. Afterall, in the words of President Uchtdorf: "Love is the defining characteristic of a disciple of Christ."

"The rock upon which ye are built"

     You know those times when you plan on being productive ... but when the moment comes there is literally not an ounce of motivation in you? That was me, on a plane to Florida, yesterday. Since we were taking the weekend off to visit grandparents in Florida - we planned on getting a lot of studying done on the plane! Good plan, right? And part of that studying was doing some reading in the scriptures... so perfect time, right? Perhaps it was... but sometimes there is something about approaching the actual moment of action (in this case when it was scripture study) where push meets shove and suddenly the things you at one point really wanted/intended to do feel not that tempting anymore -- maybe even inconvenient. I openly admit, this was not the first time (and probably not the last time) that I hit one of these walls and caved -- deciding rather that sleeping was a better alternative.

    Well, I obviously can't leave the story there... but do you get where I'm coming from? Those moments when your knowledge of what is right and your motivations... just don't quite coincide?? From something as simple as brushing your teeth to keeping the commandments, I think we face those tests daily. And instead of suggesting to you that you grit your teeth and push through it, or preach to you about self-control -- I'll tell you what helped me in this case.

    As I was falling asleep, my friend next to me pulled out his Book of Mormon and started reading. Only moments ago, I had no desire to do my homework and finish my scripture study -- but something about not feeling compelled to made me actually want to read it! I stayed in my "falling asleep" position, but instead of sleeping, I read over his shoulder. The page he was on was a really good story that I remembered and wanted to read more about. Then, even after he was finished reading, about to put the book away, I asked if I could borrow it -- reading long into the flight, honestly having one of the best studies of my life.

    We are guaranteed to have times in life when doing what is right (big or small) will be inconvenient. Surround yourself with good people and situations -- friends and family that will probably steer you in the right direction even when you aren't really feeling it yourself.  But beyond that, remember the real reason behind what you're doing -- and you'll probably realize that you do actually want to do it.  For me, this was remembering the awesome stories and lessons in the scriptures that I seriously wanted to learn -- suddenly reading was not a chore but a reward. If we stay focused on the true purpose of life, building our foundation on Christ, we are promised that we will not be overcome -- not even by exhaustion: "when all [the] hail and mighty storms shall beat upon you" (when it starts to get really hard to do something you know you should be doing) remember "the rock upon which ye are built... whereon if men build they cannot fall."

"Nourish the seed"

Have you ever noticed a change in your life when you miss a few times of scripture reading, or even just one day? The scary thing is that sometimes we don't! This isn't to say that there is no actual difference, there definitely is, but it can be difficult to perceive and attribute to a lack of scripture reading. This fact is pointed out in Alma 32 where he talks about "nourishing the seed" or nourishing our testimonies with the word of God on a regular basis. We are promised that "if ye will not nourish the word, looking forward with an eye of faith to the fruit thereof, ye can never pluck of the fruit of the tree of life (the love of God)." In fact, the seed (our testimony and spirit) will most definitely dry up and die if it does not receive nourishment (talking with and hearing from God.) So although we may not be able to see the subtle changes in the health of our spirit as we neglect to study our scriptures, Alma makes it clear that it will deteriorate -- just like a growing plant would if you stopped giving it water. And I don't know about you, but there is nothing worse than feeling like you have an empty, weak spirit. So I encourage you, on those days when it is hard to open the scriptures, to do it anyway. Our spirits need the strength and love of God that comes with reading His word.

"Our swords have become bright"

What had once been described as a "blood-thirsty" people, became a society who literally buried their weapons of war to never again fight or take the life of another person. They did this "as a testimony to our God." (Alma 24:16) So why would they do this? After years and years of wars and bloodshed -- what would move them to totally turn their lives around? To go a bit deeper than the Sunday school answer -- it wasn't just that they gained a testimony.  It wasn't just that they now believed in God. But rather, they stopped fighting -- entirely lost their desire to -- when they came to see their enemies as "their brethren." The gospel suddenly wasn't some arbitrary belief connected to an arbitrary being in a far off universe. God became "our God", the enemy became "our brethren", and so life took on real meaning as they realized they weren't just people grabbling over land, but they were children of a Heavenly Father. When we truly understand who we are -- and each of us is a child of God -- our behavior and desire will follow in the only way that makes sense. So if there is something that isn't right in your life, a habit you would like to change, or a frustration that you just can't get over, I invite you to learn more about who you are and let that knowledge change you and change how you think. I promise your desires will change and understandings will come to mind that inevitably bring peace -- truly your "swords" (challenges, weaknesses, sins, frustrations, etc.) will become bright as well. Take even one minute to pray and you'll know, as I'm often reminded, that you have never been anything less than a child of God.

"Have ye received his image in your countenance?"

If you had to rate your spiritual well-being on a scale from 1 to 10, where would you be? If you're anything like me, that's a difficult thing to measure! I wouldn't know where to start, and even if I did, it could change on an hourly basis! I was encouraged by my professor this week, however, to use Alma 5 as a good "spiritual mirror" -- a way to look into your spirit and see how you're really doing. I would extend the same invitation to each one of you and really take each question personally. As I did this, I was impressed deeply by the question he asks of "have ye received his image in your countenance?". Countenance is defined as "a person's face of facial expression" or even "support". It goes deeper than a mere muscle or eye movement -- a countenance is an expression of what we are inside. It made me think of what the Savior's countenance would be like, if he were in front of me right now. And I pictured what President Kimball said once when he was asked by an artist what the Savior looked like in order to complete a painting. He said "paint him with love in his eyes." If any of us were to look into Christ's eyes, I am sure we would see exactly what President Kimball saw. And in that same spirit, I think it is the evidence of our ultimate spiritual well-being when we too can have a countenance like the Savior's -- one that literally extends love.