I recently finished reading The Infinite Atonement, by Tad R. Callister. It's a wonderful book and it helped me understand the atonement of our Savior much better. Because the atonement is infinite and our minds are only finite, we cannot comprehend or understand it all, but I definitely gained more knowledge than I had and I have been pondering about a few things lately...
Spiritual gifts. Truly they are gifts given by the Holy Ghost. In his book, Callister quotes Elder Bruce R. McConkie saying, "Men must receive the gift of the Holy Ghost before that member of the Godhead will take up his abode with them and begin the supernal process of distributing his gifts to them....Thus the gifts of the Spirit are for believing, faithful, righteous people; they are reserved for the saints of God." Callister then goes on to say that that doesn't mean others of a different faith do not have faith or wisdom or love. He simply means that faith in it's fullest- the kind that moves mountains, charity that resembles the pure love of Christ, all the divine attributes in their grandest godlike proportions only can come through the gift of the Holy Ghost.
I had never thought of that before. How blessed we are to have gifts of the Spirit! We eventually need all the gifts of the Spirit to reach our eternal potential and become like God. To become perfect. We are blessed with some, and we need to do all we can to keep aquiring more. Just as the scriptures tell us to seek the best gifts, God is anxious to give them to us.
Charity is the gift I have pondered about lately. The pure love of Christ. I believe this is something infinite too, that our finite minds have a hard time grasping. It is so deep and goes way beyond love itself. Here are some attributes:
suffereth long
kind
envieth not
not puffed up
seeketh not her own
not easily provoked
thinketh no evil
rejoiceth in truth
beareth all things
believeth all things
hopeth all things
endureth all things
endureth forever
It is pure and perfect in all it's forms.
Like others, I too would say it is the grand motivator.
What a difference it would make if everyone was striving for charity. Especially in our relationships with ourselves and with others. And most definitely with our spouses.
Spiritual gifts. What blessings they are to us!
I'd love to hear your thoughts...
I really like when you said that 'God is anxious to give them to us!" How true this is. I have been thinking about this lately and how much He wants to bless us and how much He wants us to succeed. We just need to remember who we are and our potential.
ReplyDeleteI was reading a book and one thing the author said really struck me, she said that we know we have infinite worth, we just have to remember it. In the scriptures it says, 'Remember that the worth of souls is great in the sight of God.' We already had that knowledge before we were born, we just have to bring it to our remembrance!
I think as we remember that we will have more Christlike love for others as well and want to help them succeed on their journey home too. We can do this by using those spiritual gifts that we have been blessed with!
Sorry my thoughts are jumbled hope it makes sense, but thanks for your thoughts Rach! You are awesome and I love you!
I love this blog, Rach. And I love your thoughts. I'll have to read that book.
ReplyDeleteI think you're right in saying that charity is an eternal concept that is hard for us to understand as mortals. It's something I've been thinking about too.
I love this quote by C.S. Lewis: "It is a serious thing to live in a society of possible gods and goddesses, to remember that the dullest and most uninteresting person you talk to may one day be a creature which...you would be strongly tempted to worship. It is in light of these overwhelming possibilities that we should conduct all our dealings with one another...There are no ordinary people. You have never talked to a mere mortal. Nations, cultures, arts, civilizations - these are mortal and their life is to ours as the life of a gnat. But it is immortals whom we joke with, work with, marry, snub, and exploit - immortal horrors or everlasting splendors."
I think that is part of charity - to see other people as God sees them(as His children)and to treat them as He would treat them. I have a long way to go to develop that spiritual gift! But I'm working on it. And like Heidi said, it is so encouraging that God is anxious to give those gifts to us!
We love this blog rach. Dad and I are blessed to call you ours. Thanks for the great insights. We love you. Mom and dad
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