Have I been too busy to write? Not really, just too lazy maybe. No, not lazy, just not up to doing it. It has been a long time since November. Looking back it seems like forever! Tonight I'm not going to write all the things I have been doing since my last post because I don't have time for that. I will do that maybe next week. Suffice it to say, I've had three surgeries, nine days in the hospital, and six weeks of recovery, and a new hip that works great. Besides that, the holidays have taken up some of our time: Thanksgiving, Christmas, Martin Luther King Day, Valentines Day and the birth of a new granddaughter! That granddaughter is the best of all things to happen. And I am really excited to be able to meet her this weekend. So life has been busy, but it seems like all I have done is just laid around, recuperating. During that recuperating time I did crochet a beautiful blessing dressing for the baby, and a white afghan for her to use on those special days. So I haven't been idle. (More about the new baby in a later post, after I get to kiss her a few hundred times!)
What I want to write about tonight is a talk I found today that really explained some things I have thought about for a long time. It is a talk given by Brad Wilcox. Let me tell you a little bit about him, from my point of view. Brad Wilcox was a professor of writing at BYU. He came to our school district to give some professional development workshops for the teachers. I really enjoyed his workshops, and the stories he told. He has since been a mission president and is now back to teaching again.
You can find the talk I am referring to here at The Redheaded Hostess blog. (The blog is another post, for sure!) Many years ago while I was sitting in an interview to renew my temple recommend, President Craig Johansen asked me to explain the difference between justice and mercy. Nothing like putting me on the spot! I don't remember anything except bumbling my way through that one. I am sure his dad, Mr. Jo, my Extemperaneous Speaking coach wasn't too proud of my 'off-the-cuff' speech, but heck, it was 30 years after my last speech meet! What could he expect from me! Well, after reading this talk by President Wilcox I might be able to do a better job.
We all know how Christ has paid the price for our sins. Most people have seen the movie that shows Jesus explaining how the man paid the debt for the other man. (I'm sure there is a Mormon Channel video, but I'm not taking the time right now to look it up. Sorry about that.) The video explains that Christ pays the price and we are expected to do our best to show Him our thanks. Most of us also know that we are expected to always do our best because of the atonement. But do we see how the atonement is working in our lives. Do we see why and how we must always do our best, and will it ever be enough? Pres. Wilcox explains it in his talk.
He likens Christ atonement, and the concept of justice and mercy, to a mom paying for piano lessons. I am sure he used a mom because....well....mom pays for the piano lessons. The money goes from Mom to the piano teacher. She pays for the lesson because she wants her child to learn to play the music. She wants the child to change from being a non-piano playing child, to being a piano playing child. Just paying for the lessons doesn't make the change, so mom keeps telling the child to practice, practice, practice. Mom knows that is the only way to become better and make the mighty change. Giving the money for the lesson doesn't make the child become a piano-playing child. No one can practice for the child. If someone else steps in and fakes out Mom, in the end the child will still not change into a piano-playing child.
The child might get to the point that he/she starts complaining that it is too hard. The child doesn't see that practicing now will produce something better later on. Most people will say, "I wish my mom had forced me to keep on with my piano lessons," or "I wish I had practiced more so I would be better now." I have never heard anyone say "I wish my mom had let me stop piano lessons, then I wouldn't have had the talent I have now!" Even those who say they have no talent but Mom made them take lessons, they even see the importance of those few years of playing. So Mom saw there was a benefit, a pay-off, for those lessons and the price she paid. She never asked for her money back, she gladly paid the price, and all she asked of us was to practice.
Well, Christ paid the price for us. (justice) He doesn't ask us to pay any price back to him. He just asks us to follow him and keep his commandments. He doesn't want us to pay him back, he doesn't care about that. He knows that by following him and keeping his commandments (all those Sunday School answers), we will be training ourselves to be better piano-playing children....oh, sorry, I mean training ourselves to be more like Him. Repentance is how we show we will follow him and keep his commandments because we are not perfect. It takes practice.
I love his last paragraph: The miracle of the Atonement is not just that we can live after we die but that we can live more abundantly (see John 10:10). The miracle of the Atonement is not just that we can be cleansed and consoled but that we can be transformed (see romans 8). Scriptures make it clear that no unclean thing can dwell with God (see Alma 40:26), but, brothers and sisters, no unchanged thing will even want to.
(I know, formatting changes right here, but I can't figure out how to get back to the other font. I must have imported it from somewhere else.)
We must change. We must feel remorse for what we have done that is not in harmony with what Christ would want us to do. We must admit where we have not been playing the right song, and take the necessary steps to practice. Of course it means we will have to change, but that change means we are becoming more like Christ wants us to be. That means we practice and practice until we know all the accidentals, the time changes, the flats and sharps, and even if the key signature changes, we can change right along with it because we have practiced enough to know what the song should sound like.
I think one of the things that we don't look and study enough is the feeling of remorse. We must acknowledge that we have done something that was not right, even if we felt it had to be done. We know it was wrong, and we must admit it to the right people and start that mighty change. If we just think "OK, I was justified in what I did" then just go out and play, we won't get that practice done. Practicing twice as long tomorrow won't make us a better player today. Who knows what might happen between now and the next time we get to practice. There might not be a next time. We need to change now. We need to feel that remorse to make it right and practice today. We can't stand by and wish someone else would do it. The price has already been paid. We have an obligation to understand what the Lord sees we can do, and then work toward it. Remorse......knowing we haven't done our best, and admitting it, means we are practicing and becoming more like Him. It is all a process that makes us become better.........
Or we can just sit back and do nothing....... and then wonder why we can't play the piano as well as someone else.
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