A Rock

 Another Guest Writer: Elder Epps, He is from North Carolina. He is an incredible missionary, and is an inspiring person. Read carefully his words. 

 Well I'm not a very creative person, never have been but I would like to share something with you that has been on my mind as of recent. The thing that I have thought a lot of about is the Atonement of Jesus Christ. Sometimes I think I do not deserve the great sacrifice that our Savior Jesus Christ made for us as he, the perfect Son of God, humbled himself before our Heavenly Father and willingly accepted to pay for every single little and big mistake we make in our lives. Sometimes I get down because I know the mistakes I have, do, and will make added on to that pain He felt. I have often thought that I am not deserving of that great sacrifice He made for us.

   As I have continued to study, pray, and feel, I have come to realize those feelings and thoughts that many of us have of inadequacy or worthlesness only come from the opposition, who is Lucifer. We need to completely turn over our lives to the Lord and see what he will make out of us. Someone that helped me a lot as I grew up once compared us to a rock. Yes a rock. We have many weakness and we make many mistakes throughout life and we just look like an ugly good for nothing rock. For example this one...

     Now we can compare Christ to a river. As we hand our life over to him and the things he taught and he did and allow the river (Christ) to take us where it is going we will change. Along the way we might hit bigger rocks, and harder places to get out of (our trials), but these bigger rocks, and rough currents that we hit will shape us and form us into something more pure as we continue to allow the river to take us. Our rough edges and not so attractive things (our mistakes) will go away. We will turn into something more pure and with less defects. The product will look something like this....

    After a long, rough and difficult process we are perfected. We are without blemish. We are pure. Only through the river carrying us down that long and difficult path we can become like this. Only through Jesus Christ our Redeemer we can become pure and without blemish. I encourage all of us to leave those feelings of doubt and inadequacy behind and hand our lives over to our Savior and see what he can make us. No matter the trials or difficulties we have, lets not stop. Just keep going forward with faith and we will one day stand before our loving Heavenly Father withouth blemish and he will warmly welcome us into his arms as well as his perfect loving son, Jesus Christ.

Elder Epps