Perfection

Last month in testimony meeting, our friend Beau Lewis told a story of his dad. His family makes cabinets and the church had asked him to make some cupboards for the Brigham City Temple. They needed some additional ones to match some that were already installed. He completed the cabinet and got one of the doors from the installed ones to match the finish. He could not get the finish to match. He tried different shades. He looked at it in different light. He prayed and worked and worked, trying to make it perfect. Someone from the temple came and was going to fix it himself. Finally, he decided to just take it to the temple and install it, and have them make it right. When he put it in the temple, it matched perfectly. After all he could do, it was perfect in the temple.

This made me think about how our lives are. We work our hardest. Pray most earnestly. Look at things in a different light. Try everything we can. It seems that no matter what we try, we can't be perfect. After all we can do, we must turn it over to the Lord. Through Christ's atonement, all our offerings will be made perfect. If we have the faith, and believe that all things are possible, all our sins and wrongdoings are made perfect in Christ.

This story helped me to see that I don't have to do all the work myself. I can rely on Christ's saving grace. This thought gave me great hope. I know that all my striving will be rewarded in the end as long as I keep up my end of the promises I have made. My work + Christ's Grace = Perfection. I must remember this and not get discouraged and just turn it over to the Lord.

How The Book of Mormon Relates to Cleaning

Can you really relate house cleaning to the Book of Mormon? I did. I was reading in the book of Alma where they are having all the wars. Many times it is mentioned how Moroni wanted to maintain the cities they had because it was very hard to regain what had become lost. 

During the time I was reading this, I was doing some much needed deep cleaning of my house. It was bad, I tell ya! For instance, it took me 2 hours to clean my dining room. As I was doing the cleaning, I realized that this would never have taken so long if I would have maintained it, instead of trying to reclaim it from the dust and dirt that was everywhere. If I would have done some quick dusting and wiping daily or even weekly, I never would have had to work so hard to get it where I wanted it to be.

This point was emphasized even more for me when I signed up to help clean the Brigham City Temple. We dusted, vacuumed and wiped everywhere. I asked how often that got done, and was told they do it every night! Well, no wonder that I couldn't see any dust on my duster! Although at the end there was a slight change from the pure white to a barely noticeable graying. So I suppose that even though something looks perfectly clean, there could be dirt there. I realized that the only way to keep the temple in such pristine condition was constant vigilance.

After I realized that my home, like the temple, needed constant care and attention, I thought about a testimony. That too needs constant attention. We can slowly build up dirt and grime. Unless we are consistently "cleaning", we might not notice the change. Something someone says or does might leave a spot. Something we watch could make us "dusty". By doing all the things that we are told over and over to be doing, we are "cleaning" our testimony. Going to church helps us to see some of the ways we can improve. Reading the scriptures helps us to hear God's advice to us. Taking the sacrament renews us and cleanses us, making us ready for a new week. Praying helps us to feel the love that God has for us. If we aren't consistently doing these things, we can slowly weaken. We might not even notice. Then one day, when we make a choice, we might see that choice is very different from one we might have made when we were doing those things.

 I'm going to maintain my house (it's already starting to revert!) and my testimony, so that when it matters, both are clean and beautiful.