My dear friend, Karen, taught a lesson today in Relief Society.  It was about living up to our privileges by keeping our covenants.  One thing she said caused me to grab a pen and write this note:

Enduring to the End = Learning from Experiences over Time

I think that’s another blessing that comes from journal keeping and story writing.  Often it’s when we look back that we see the patterns, the larger picture, the lessons that emerge only after the dust settles and time heals.  It brings closure and peace, along the way, and in the end.

Here’s the quote she read that took me there:

Brad Wilcox gave a talk at BYU the summer of 2011.  In his talk he described what the Atonement is:

“The miracle of the Atonement is not just that we can live after we die, but that we can live more abundantly.  The miracle of the Atonement is not just that we can be cleansed and consoled but that we can be transformed.  Scriptures make it clear that no unclean thing can dwell with God, but no unchanged thing will even want to.  The miracle of the Atonement is not just that we can go home but that miraculously we can feel at home there.

If the Father and the Son did not require covenants and bestow the gift of the Holy Ghost, then there would be no way to change.  We would be left forever with only willpower, with no access to His power.  If Heavenly Father and His Son did not require endurance to the end, then there would be no internalization of those changes over time.  They would forever be surface and cosmetic rather than sinking inside us and becoming part of us.  Put simply, if Jesus didn’t require practice, then we would never become Saints.”