Skip to main content

What I REALLY Want


I am a Mormon. I belong to the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints. This impacts my life in ways that are great and small. One of the many things that appeals to me about my faith can be found in the following verses from Moroni 7:

47 But charity is the pure love of Christ, and it endureth forever; and whoso is found possessed of it at the last day, it shall be well with him.

 48 Wherefore, my beloved brethren, pray unto the Father with all the energy of heart, that ye may be filled with this love, which he hath bestowed upon all who are true followers of his Son, Jesus Christ; that ye may become the sons of God; that when he shall appear we shall be like him, for we shall see him as he is; that we may have this hope; that we may be purified even as he is pure. Amen.

This was taken from a sermon delivered by Mormon, author of the eponymous Book of Mormon. Sometime around 400 years after the birth of Christ and His visit to the Americas, this prophet and historian gave an address to a congregation of followers. He expounded on the virtues of faith, hope, and charity, noting the linked nature of these virtues, and explaining that the greatest virtue is charity. It is not dissimilar to Paul's sermon found in 1 Corinthians 13, but these two verses add something that Paul does not, although there is similarity between the symbolism of seeing through the mirror darkly, and later face to face, and the idea that when He appears we shall be like Him, and see Him like He is.

Just, incredible. Absolutely incredible. I love that so much.

If I could have one life-pursuit, this would be it: verse 48 above. That one verse encapsulates everything I want to be, the summation of everything I hope for, and the truest, deepest desire of my heart. And so I do as the verse commends - I pray that I may be filled with this love. It's what I want, more than anything.

I know that I am not perfect. I know that I am filled with flaws, and I am often troubled by how easily my weaknesses get the better of me. But I hope - like the verse says - that I may be purified, even as He is pure.

Oh, how I want that!

I hope that I can be worthy of that - filled with love, and purified...

Comments

Popular posts from this blog

Christ by highest heaven adored, Christ the everlasting Lord!

The purpose of the Book of Mormon is to testify of Christ and bring souls to Him. Who can deny this who have read the book and pondered it's sacred import? My life has been blessed and I have come to know Christ through reading this holy book. I know that Christ lives and loves us. I know He is our Savior and Redeemer. I know that through His merits alone we are saved from an eternity of misery and woe. I know that He died for us. I know He lives for us, advocating our cause before the throne of the Almighty. He is the author and finisher of our faith. He is the Master, the Son of God, the great Jehovah. Blessed and praised be His Holy Name forever and ever! To Him be all glory, honor, and majesty to an eternal day! It is the atonement of Christ - His suffering and subsequent victory - that makes all of this possible. His grace is sufficient for all after all we can do. And make no mistake - we must do all in our power. But through Him and by Him we can and will overcome. I love H

2020 - A retrospective

 There will no doubt be many retrospectives written about the year that was 2020. It was a tough year for most, a good year for many, and generally speaking a very interesting year. Which reminds me of the the old curse - may you live in interesting times. Because, you see - interesting does not always mean good. It does not mean better. It does not mean happy. It just means interesting. So to highlight just how interesting things were, I offer the following post about things that went on. Or didn’t went on. It’s not intended to be chronological, necessarily, or even accurate. It’s just some of my observations.... Let’s start with the pandemic. Pandemic is a word that was previously the realm of science fiction and/or horror writers (The Stand comes to mind). Late 2019 a disease was identified in Wuhan, China, which is a place I’d never heard of before. Apparently coming from some kind of exotic meat market, this strain of Coronavirus was something that the world hadn’t seen before. Ma

Is this thing still on?

 Does anyone even blog anymore? I remember when it first got started and everyone was having a blog. I like writing, and I do a lot of it in my professional life, but not everything makes it onto this blog, which is where a lot of my personal thoughts come out. I put more into Facebook lately, too, because it's a little easier. But there's something to be said for this long-form writing exercise, and I think I will continue here periodically. You don't mind, do you? Well, in my last post I wrote about how difficult things were for me at the time. That changed in July when I finally got a job working for the State of Utah. I was the program manager for the moderate income housing database program, and that meant I worked from home a lot but also went in to Salt Lake when needed, mostly on the train. It was a good experience, for the most part, and I'm grateful for the things I learned even in the short time I was there.  In October I started working for Weber County in t