Feelings on the Atonement

Feelings on the Atonement May 19, 2009

Today, on BYU-TV, I listened to Scott Anderson talk about his experience as a bishop in helping a young man go through the repentance process. It was very touching. He described the young man’s joy as he held the sacrament bread in his hands, when he was first able to partake of it, after several months without that privilege. After the Sacrament Meeting he went to the Bishop’s Office and knelt in prayer with the Bishop and expressed how much love he felt from the Savior when he partook of the sacrament. Brother Anderson went on to describe those same hands (of the young man) and the feelings he had as he baptized others in the mission field, then the amazing joy of remembering how much the Lord loves him as he held his bride’s hand across the altar in the temple. He wept with the joy of the love he felt from the Savior. But when he later held his baby in his arms, his joy was even greater.

As he spoke, a flood of memories came to me. I remembered the times when I too, have felt the Savior’s love in my life. I remembered the joy of making temple covenants, of kneeling across the temple altar, of holding precious babies in my arms—and precious grandbabies—all of whom have been born in the covenant. All of this is possible because of the Savior’s love and His atoning sacrifice. I have a strong testimony of the atonement of the Savior. Because of His love, we truly can be forgiven as we forsake our sins. That is an amazing process. I am so very grateful. The atonement guarantees our resurrection and the opportunity to be reunited with our Father. Everyone will be reunited with Him—at least long enough for the Day of Judgment. But we won’t be alone as we make an accounting, on that judgment day. The Savior, will be there to act as our Advocate before the Father. But I suspect we will meet with Him (the Savior) first.

Imagine what it will be like to meet, alone with the Savior prior to that final judgment. Sometimes, we look back over our lives and remember the things we have done wrong, and we feel unworthy and unclean. But we know we have repented and truly forsaken those sins—we just haven’t been able to forget. Sometimes, we even doubt the Lord’s word when He said, “I will remember them no more.” If we are to truly believe what the Savior says, then we can imagine our “PPI” with Him. Imagine Him expressing His love for you, and as you think of your sins, you try to explain about what happened, “Yes, but there was that time when….” And He just looks you in the eyes with His love encompassing you and says, “I don’t remember that.” And He moves on to ask you about something else. Each time you feel unworthy and start to explain why, He surrounds you with His love and calmly states, “I don’t remember that.” He, who is perfect, has promised that if we repent [and because of his atonement] He “will remember them (our sins) no more.” Wow. I am in awe of His capacity to love. I am inspired to try harder, to live better, and to become more worthy. There are so many ways I can grow and improve.

I hope my love as a mother, wife, daughter, sister, cousin, friend and in every other role in my life, I can truly pattern my actions after His love. Can I ever get to the point that when I have been hurt or offended “I remember no more?”

I hope as I partake of the sacrament, I can feel the same deep reverence for the emblems that were described earlier. I hope I can remember that these are emblems of His love for me—individually—doing it just for me was enough. But he did it for each one of us individually.

He loves me enough….
Do I love Him enough?