Come, Follow Me: Book of Mormon 2024 (June 10–16)

Did you know that on average, there are 30 trillion cells in your body and these cells are replaced every 7-10 years? This visual, one cell being replaced with another, is how I imagine the process of testimony turning into conversion. Over time, one good cell is replaced by an even better one until the heart, mind and might are filled with only the best. 

We become new creatures in Christ (2 Corinthians 5:17) and there is … “no more disposition to do evil, but to do good continually” (Mosiah 5:2) and we can declare, “Yes!” to the question, “I say unto you, can ye look up to God at that day with a pure heart and clean hands? I say unto you, can you look up, having the image of God engraven upon your countenances?” (Alma 5:19).

There is hope and optimism when we know a “mighty change” comes from consistent, very small or even tiny improvements. Elder Bednar describes it like this, “For many of us, conversion is an ongoing process and not a onetime event that results from a powerful or dramatic experience. Line upon line and precept upon precept, gradually and almost imperceptibly, our motives, our thoughts, our words, and our deeds become aligned with the will of God.”

Isn’t it joyful that through repentance we can make these changes? Elder Holland called the word repent, “the most hopeful and encouraging word in the Christian vocabulary.” He goes on to say, “We thank our Father in Heaven we are allowed to change, we thank Jesus we can change, and ultimately we do so only with Their divine assistance. Certainly not everything we struggle with is a result of our actions. Often it is the result of the actions of others or just the mortal events of life. But anything we can change we should change, and we must forgive the rest. In this way our access to the Savior’s atonement is as unimpeded as we, with our imperfections, can make it. He will take it from there.” 

Do Hard Divinely Better Lesson # 23: Each Sunday, as you take the sacrament, look for where you’re just a little bit better because of your choices and Their divine assistance.