Changing direction--more thoughts on the Atonement

Sometimes, I look at my life and wonder how I got here. All the little steps led to this location. I feel sometimes like I'm a mess, like my life is a mess. And how to fix it?

I wrote yesterday about the power of the Atonement to change. I believe it. It resonates in my heart. But I have found that having a testimony of a gospel principle and applying it to your life is a completely different thing. Perhaps that's why the question of faith vs. works is so charged. It's easy to admit that something is true, even to believe it fervently while you admit it. It's hard to live your life according to those principles you believe in.

I love marriage and have a great testimony of it, but marriage is hard. It's hard enough to mold your life and go in the direction you need to go when you're the only person you have to worry about. When you've got two people involved, things get more complicated. First of all, you have to make sure you've got the same destination. You have to make sure the weight of life is evenly distributed so neither of you burn out or gets tired, and if you mess up, you have to carry some extra weight while your spouse recovers. You have to motivate each other and sometimes scold each other so you can stay on the right track. All of those things a single person must do to keep herself moving, married people must be willing to do to each other (as well as to themselves). To make this task even more difficult, it must be done with love and trust and patience and without the fear of our partner taking offense.

We need to apply the Atonement to our lives, because everything that Christ has taught us about love and patience as well as taking responsibility and taking steps to improve is needed in our society. The Atonement also does something that my abilities always seem to fall short of. The Atonement changes us from the inside out. When we are changed as individuals, we change the world around us. If we as individuals can apply the Atonement to our lives, it will affect our marriages, our children, our extended families, our friends.

So, no matter where I am, I can head to a better place and become a better person in the process. Thank God!!!

I had an institute teacher who said something really profound, and I have applied it to my life ever since. He said that if your life is messed up in any way, go back to the basics. Make sure you're doing these three things EVERY DAY: praying (by self, with spouse, with family), studying the scriptures, and repenting. If you're not doing even one of those things every day, that's probably one reason why you're in the mess you're in. Think about it. If we repent every day, we fix our small bad decisions before they become big bad decisions. Small corrections=more progress. Those three things are the key to applying the Atonement to your life. The basics.

Man, I love the gospel! I'm gonna go do my three things!