I am preparing to serve a mission, and as I am filling out the required papers and having the required interviews with my bishop and stake president my mind is constantly on the Atonement of Christ and His forgiveness. In my short life so far there have been many choices that I have made that have not been the right ones. None of them have been large enough to keep me from being able to serve a mission, but of course, I still have a wide variety of them. Sometimes I wonder how Jesus Christ could have stayed so clean, so pure, so good, without faltering once. I mean, it seems like it is everyday, even hourly that I falter. How is it that I could ever be worthy of His presence, of His goodness?
But then I think of His purpose -- to heal us, to cleanse our souls through His perfection. He came here to die for us so that we too, through Him, could receive forgiveness and become perfect. But do we sometimes forget Him and show a lack of forgiveness even to myself? Do I?
From now on out I will try to be more like Christ in that way: in forgiving myself. Of course it will be important to pray and repent, but I must be accepting of Christ's Atonement and forgiveness and show myself the same mercy.
We are not perfect. But He is. And through His perfection we can become perfect ourselves. Christ sees that potential in us. Do we?
