A "Garbage" Post

      This may be the easiest blog I write because most of it is going to be just a bit of copying from a General Conference address given by Elder Shayne M. Bowen in October of 2006. I was reading it the other day and had thought to use parts of it in my daily Thursday thoughts, but it was just too good to split into bits and pieces so I decided I would share it on here and may add a few comments at the end, although it is fairly self explanatory, so we'll see. But here goes:

     "I have lived in Idaho Falls nearly my whole life. I have contributed a lot of garbage to those landfills over the course of more than 50 years. 

     What would the city fathers think if on a given day I showed up on one of the runways of the Idaho Falls airport or the middle of one of the grassy fields in Freeman Park with a backhoe and started digging large holes? When they asked me what I was doing, I would respond that I wanted to dig up the old garbage that I hade made over the years.

     I suspect they would tell me that there was no way to identify my personal garbage, that it had been reclaimed and buried long ago. I'm sure they would tell me that I had no right to dig up the garbage and that I was destroying something very beautiful and useful that they had made out of my garbage. In short, I don't think they would be very pleased with me. I suppose that they would wonder why anyone would want to destroy something so beautiful and useful in an attempt to dig up old garbage.

     Just as the landfill requires dedicated work and attention, laboriously applying layer after layer of fill to reclaim the lowlying ground, our lives also require the same vigilance, continually applying layer after layer of the healing gift of repentance.

     Just as the city fathers in Idaho Falls would feel bad about a person trying to dig up his old garbage, our Father in Heaven and His Son, Jesus Christ, feel sorrow when we choose to remain in sin, when the gift of repentance made possible throught the Atonement can clean, reclaim, and sanctify our lives. 

     When we gratefully accept and use this precious gift, we can enjoy the beauty and usefulness of our lives that God has reclaimed through His infinite love and the Atonement of His son and our brother, Jesus Christ.

     I testify that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of the Living God, that His Atonement is real and that through the miracle of forgiveness, He can make each of us clean again, even you. In the name of Jesus Christ, amen."

     I think you can get the point that is being made here, although as with any form of communication, you can come up with more than one! I did for sure! I will let you ponder this and come up with your own personal ones! But  I would like to add my own testimony that I know our Heavenly Father and Jesus Christ will help us in every way possible if we will do our part to repent and follow Them!!! I so testify in the name of Jesus Christ, amen!!!