Awake, Arise, and Come Unto Christ

I taught Relief Society today. It was a fifth-week lesson, and I had to choose my own subject. After reading many conference talks and a couple of books, I decided to focus on the 2008 BYU Women's Conference, especially Sheri Dew's keynote address, "Awake, Arise, and Come Unto Christ." She says we awake by realizing who we are and what our value is; we arise by ministering to others as instruments in the Lord's hands; and we come unto Christ by walking away from the world and choosing Christ. "Those who think of life as a ministry tend to be less lonely, less likely to feel that life has spun out of control, more inclined to have a gentle heart, more filled with purpose."

In his talk at the same conference John Bytheway says, "Faith is not turning what we want into reality. That would be faith in what we want. The first principle of the gospel is not just faith, but faith in the Lord Jesus Christ."

I like to start my Sunday mornings by listening to BYU television, watching scripture discussions or the Tabernacle Choir or a devotional talk. This morning I was inspired by Douglas Prawitt's address given July 19, 2011, at BYU. He says, "We can and must be kind and merciful with ourselves even while being fully and deeply committed to the knowledge that we can and must do better...We can and must love ourselves even if we are not completely satisfied with what we are or where we are at the moment." It was such a wonderful talk! Sometimes I think that we teach our children, inadvertently, that they must be perfect and always choose the right all the time. Of course, none of us can live up to that! We need to teach more that even though we make mistakes, the miracle of the Atonement brings us back to our loving Heavenly Father through repentance. We have to forgive ourselves and keep trying.