Lesson 6 Becoming Perfect before the Lord: "A Little Better Day by Day."
Today's lesson was a good reminder to us all that we must work toward perfection as our Father in Heaven has demanded but that we do it like most other chores that we all have, a little bit each day. Wendy Prusso taught the lesson with great conviction yet with humility, using some of her own experiences to help us see how others deal with adversity and challenges of an ever changing life. We can think we have something handled well but if we are continually striving to get a bit better, the Lord will send us ample opportunities to improve through new challenges.
Remember when we were in school (or still are) and we would work through an new problem or try to comprehend a new concept? We usually have to think about it a while and then do the homework. Those steps can still apply to us throughout our entire life. What worked yesterday may need some minor adaptations today. The more experience we have, the more we study the scriptures and open our lives to the guidance of the Holy Ghost, the more the Lord will give to us to help us return home to live with Him.
“And when Abram was ninety years old and nine, the Lord appeared to Abram and said unto him, I am the Almighty God; walk before me and be thou perfect.” [Genesis 17:1.]
From the lesson manual, we can read the comments below plus many more encouraging words.
The Lord proposes to confer the highest blessings upon the Latter-day Saints; but, like Abraham, we must prepare ourselves for them, and to do this the same law that was given to him of the Lord has been given to us for our observance. We also are required to arrive at a state of perfection before the Lord; and the Lord in this case, the same as in every other, has not made a requirement that cannot be complied with, but on the other hand, He has placed for the use of the Latter-day Saints the means by which they can conform to His holy order. When the Lord made this requirement of Abraham, He gave him the means by which he could become qualified to obey that law and come up fully to the requirement. He had the privilege of the Holy Spirit, as we are told the gospel was preached to Abraham, and through that gospel he could obtain that divine aid which would enable him to understand the things of God, and without it no man could do so; without it no man could arrive at a state of perfection before the Lord.
So in reference to the Latter-day Saints; they could not possibly come up to such a moral and spiritual standard except through supernatural [heavenly] aid and assistance. Neither do we expect that the Latter-day Saints, at once will or can conform to this law under all circumstances. It requires time; it requires much patience and discipline of the mind and heart in order to obey this commandment. And although we may fail at first in our attempts, yet this should not discourage the Latter-day Saints from endeavoring to exercise a determination to comply with the great requirement.
When we experience trying moments, then is the time for us to avail ourselves of that great privilege of calling upon the Lord for strength and understanding, intelligence and grace by which we can overcome the weakness of the flesh against which we have to make a continual warfare.
In closing today, I hope we can all strive to take one thing in our lives that can use some "improvement" and see if we can be a bit better in that one thing, for one day. Then when we check in with our Father in prayer, we can report how we did and continue to have success one more day. The beautiful thing is, that if we do not achieve our goal that one day, we can set a goal for success the next day, one more day at a time. Our Heavenly Father loves us more than we can imagine and wants us to see the importance of these small steps forward.
On these lovely spring days, I hope we will be energized to do good works for ourselves, as well as others.
Much love to you all,
your new "blogger" in training- which means the announcements aren't right but I will try and learn that trick soon, we hope.
Janice Cunningham
