Do we believe Christ? That He will do what He says He is going to do?

We have the cutest kid in our church. On fast Sunday (the first of every month LDS people fast for two meals and then the church meeting consists of bearing testimony. The money you would spend on food for those two meals is given, if you so desire, to the church to distribute to the poor.) he often bears his testimony. His name is Kristjan. Today he was telling a story about locking his keys in his car and how he had to be somewhere really important when he instantly ran into some friends who could help him. I love it when he said...."You can call it coincidence if you want to but I'm not going to." I loved that! Good going kid! Way to stand on your own feet and believe what you believe. I thought it was outstanding.

I have things like that happen to me also. Things that are almost too amazing to call a coincident but you still doubt a tiny bit whether it was God's hand in your life or not. I try to always just assume it was God's hand in my life. This week I did have something happen to me that I KNEW there could not be any other answer than God's hand in my life. Nice.

I started reading this book today by a professor at BYU. Believing Christ by Stephen E. Robinson.

He said he has students come in who understand about paying tithing, or fasting, or other doctrines of the gospel but that they do not understand some scriptural doctrines like salvation by grace, justification through faith in Christ, sanctification, atonement..... Wow, do I? I'll just say it. I don't. Or I don't know that I do yet.

 I decided to study those topics and make sure me and my most precious kids (which are all of them ;) ) understand those topics.

The first chapter in his book spoke of how we cannot make it to Heaven on our own because we are sinners. No one can. Not without Christ. And we can work our butts off trying to do it alone by being perfect or we can do our best, giving ourselves a break, and let Christ get us the rest of the way there.

I love when he says, "Do you really think that exaltation is a matter of reaching down into your guts and pulling out the energy and determination you need to live a perfect life? If so, you don't want a savior, you want to do it all by yourself."

"The great secret is this: Jesus Christ will share his perfection, his sinlessness, his righteousness, his merits with us. In his mercy he offers us the use of his perfection, in the absence of our own, to satisfy the demands of justice."

One of my favorite things he says so far is,"We must not only believe in Christ, we must also believe Christ."

Do we believe Christ? That He will do what He says He is going to do?

I do. And I am so grateful. Because I am not perfect. And I don't want to try to be.

That will cause you mental illness. And I am not joking.

I have been seeing a therapist for a little fine tuning in some private matters. Is that crazy to admit online? I don't know. But I have been gleaning some wonderful things from him. He told me once that one of the biggest issues we have in our community is perfectionism. People trying to be perfect and expecting their kids to be perfect. And the kids expecting themselves to be perfect. It is a problem. And when I look about I can see how right he is.

I could quote the whole book and I am only on part of chapter two. So good. Thanks mom for giving it to me. I have marked it all up already. I can't wait to teach my kids some of the "Good News" I am reading about. Which, I have learned, always sounds better in theory, the teaching part. Because actually teaching them means  I have to sit down with them and deal with fighting, texting, talking while I'm talking, getting drinks while I am taking, rolling eyes,....etc. Lol. But I will try!