Stick with the program!

     "Can you imagine yourselves brought before the tribunal of God with your souls filled with guilt and remorse, having a remembrance of all your guilt, yea, a remembrance of all your wickedness, yea, a remembrance that ye have set at defiance the commandments of God" (Alma 5:18)
     This is the kind of self-lashing many of us think of when we consider the Atonement of Jesus Christ. Those of us who have made the choice to believe that Jesus Christ, the Son of God, lived on this earth and suffered for our benefit, generally struggle to be humble and obedient as we strive to follow His example. It can be pretty discouraging to beat ourselves up about how wicked we are and how much we owe for our evil thoughts, words, and deeds. Maybe we should think instead of these elements of Christ's sacrifice:
     And he shall go forth, suffering pains and afflictions and temptations of every kind; and this that the word might be fulfilled which saith he will take upon him the pains and the sicknesses of his people. And he will take upon him death, that he may loose the bands of death which bind his people; and he will take upon him their infirmities, that his bowels may be filled with mercy, according to the flesh, that he may know according to the flesh how to succor his people according to their infirmities. (Alma 7:11,12)
     True, He paid the price for wrongdoings we can never undo or pay for ourselves. He also lived as a mortal so He could know what we go through. He suffered pain so He can understand our pain. He suffered trials so He could understand our trials. He suffered grief so He could understand our grief. And so on and so on... Maybe we could think in terms of enrolling in a college degree program. We may really struggle with some of the required courses. We may do better than some people in some areas and not as good in others. We may even fail a course and have to re-take it. But as long as we keep working at it, we are still enrolled in the program. Maybe we can feel discouraged and want to quit trying to do good things even though we have no desire to do bad things. Maybe we can feel tired or worried about rejection which keeps us from making much progress. Jesus Christ understands those feelings. He told the Father, "If thou wilt, let this cup pass from me." We are not even close to suffering for the sins of mankind, but if He felt pain and sorrow, He understands what pain and sorrow feels like. If we take our sorrows to Him and pray for His encouragement, forgiveness, and whatever help is appropriate, He will be there for us. He has promised us that. He's not going to take away our needed growing experiences. He's not going to interfere in our education. But He is able to have empathy and will love us through. He cannot take the steps for us but He will walk beside us. There are days when it feels like we're just barely staying in the program. But there will be times when we ace a course! We just need to stay with it- endure to the end.