Dissecting a Word

Today was Stake Conference. Because of a sick girl, Todd and I had to trade off halfway through to have someone stay with her at home. I came for the second half and it was inspiring. I loved a talk that our former bishop (Bishop Louder), and now counselor in the stake presidency, gave. I should also add that he was a biology teacher at my high school. Because of his field of expertise, he said he likes to "dissect" things. His talk was about how we can BECOME what we need to be in this life. He chose to dissect the word BECOME.

On either side of the word is BE and ME. There are people that are living lives of sin, running around touting that they are "just being themselves" and "take it or leave it--this is me" and "I just need to be true to me." It's all a farce. You want to know why? Because all of us were born into this life as pure and spotless as He who came before us. We were born in His image. That is the REAL us, the TRUE us. Yes, it is important to be ourselves, but only when we are being true to our real selves. It is only when we start living in this tainted world that we get pulled away from HIM, away from what we really are. We are pulled away by our own choices. One small justification after another, inch by inch--pretty soon we forget. I think we all know who is doing the pulling in the other direction, clouding our vision.

On the inside of BE and ME are the letters O and C. O for Obedience and C is for Christ. If we will obey the words of Christ, we will once again be closer to Him, closer to who we really are. Our spirits know. We are reminded each time we do something aligned with the Savior. Don't believe me? Try it! I promise you will feel the warm, comforting feeling of being true to you . . . and to Him.

I know I need to be better. I need to remember. So many days my vision is clouded, but I'm determined to BECOME who I need to be in this life and beyond. The only way is through the Savior. Otherwise we spend a lot of wasted hours trying to figure out what it is all about, spending time on trivial things, or just not caring--simply living life without purpose. How fun is that? I'm determined to live more purposefully. Today was a good reminder for me.

What will you "BECOME" this week?