All My Sins

My kids wanted to give me gifts for Christmas.  They wanted to pick out something fancy.  They went and asked dad to buy something for me.  They also drew me photos.  None of these took much time or cost them any money.  So although they are sweet, they didn't mean so much to me.  One kid (okay, it's Dora, she's my most angelic child!) decided to do something nice and spent quite a bit of time cleaning up "my house" (the main living areas and my bedroom) a few times.  She told me her gift was cleaning up my home, and let me tell you, that gift made me beam because I knew it required something of her.  It wasn't easy, and it was from HER.

Now bear with me a moment, because these things seem disconnected, but they aren't.

I love the scriptures.  I love the old testament, especially the book of Job.  I love the New Testament, especially the stories of Christ's life.  I love Christ's teachings.  I love the Book of Mormon and the Doctrine and Covenants and I love that we have a living prophet and receive ongoing revelations.  I love the stories, the admonitions, the parables.  I love almost all of it.  I tell you this so you will believe me when I say that for me, saying one verse is my favorite scripture of all time is a big deal.

So here it is.  This week I will share with you my favorite scripture of all time.

Let me set the stage.  In Alma 22 the four sons of Mosiah have left the Nephites to go visit the wicked, wicked Lamanites.  Ammon has had a lot of good luck and faith and been met with success in teaching King Lamoni, who happens to be one of the sons of the biggest baddest king of all the Lamanites.  Ammon meets the big bad King and after an altercation, Ammon promises to go see the big bad King (who I will hereafter call Big Bad) later on.

Ammon breaks his promise and sends his brother Aaron instead because he gets bogged down in missionary work.  Aaron is recently reprieved from jail and probably a little nervous.  He might even be scared.  He goes to meet with Big Bad.

Aaron starts very basic, with a few simple questions.  It turns out Big Bad is willing to take Aaron at his word that there is a God.  Then after seeing Big Bad's faith, Aaron lays it all out there.  He tells Big Bad about the fall of man, the coming of Christ, his atonement, the plan of salvation.  Big Bad takes it all pretty well and he makes a big offer.  He offers Aaron everything he has, his kingdom, and all his possessions to have the badness rooted from his breast and to have the joy of God replace it.  He begs to be born of God.

Aaron tells him it's simpler than that.  He just has to kneel down and pray, ask for forgiveness, and he can be forgiven.

Big Bad's prayer is my favorite verse.  Alma 22:18 O God, Aaron hath told me that there is a God; and if there is a God, and if thou art God, wilt thou make thyself known unto me, and I will give away all my sins to know thee, and that I may be raised from the dead, and be saved at the last day.  And now when the king (aka Big Bad) had said these words, he was struck as if he were dead.

I bolded the part I love the most.  If you believe in God, and you believe He made us all in his image, and you believe He blesses us, then you know that every time we do good, and we are blessed, He is repaying us.  Sometimes it's literally, sometimes it's something of spiritual value, but either way, He pays us for our work, our sacrifice, our love.  Thus, no matter what, our ledger is always red.  We never enter the black, we are never ever profitable servants.

We have one thing, one single solitary thing, to give to God.

I hope that this year you had a wonderful Christmas and enjoyed the time with your family.  I hope you gave and received some wonderful gifts.  And now, with this new year, with the time and blessings and joy you have been given, I hope you will take a moment and give God a special gift.

None of us are perfect.  I can think of several things I do wrong.  For me it's easy, for some of you it might be very hard, but I want you to think of a sin.  It could be a sin of commission (drinking--for non-members who don't abide by our word of wisdom, pretend I said, drinking too much--, lying, stealing, or something a little less dramatic) or a sin of omission (not doing things you should.)  It can be large or small, but think about your favorite sin.  That thing you do (or don't do) that you should change.  You should want to keep doing (or not doing) this thing.  It should be like me asking you to … gasp… give up cookies.  (I am so glad a eating a few cookies is not a sin!)  The thought of giving this thing up should sting, that's my point.

Now, give it up.

Don't just say you will, but do it.  That's the hard part, of course.  Then when you have made that a habit, or eliminated a bad one, give up something else.  That is the only meaningful gift we can give our Heavenly Father.  He probably smiles when we serve others, and He probably grins when we go to church, or pay a tithe to His church.  But those things are gifts from Him that we are merely returning to Him.  If you want your Father in Heaven to beam, then you know what you have to do.  Give up all your sins and then (and only then) can you know Him.

He wants all of us to know Him because He already sees all of us as we can be, if only we will follow His plan. Now all we have to do is get there, so get going already.