In relief society today we were talking about sacrifice. The woman teaching, along with a few others, mentioned how they often feel bad for, 'not wanting to go to church, do a calling, pick up people for church, etc.', and how doing the right thing is often so hard for them. They were beating themselves up for feeling a certain way.
A sister near me started talking about the sacrifice the Savior made for us and a thought came to me, which I actually shared! I said that the Savior was without sin and that even when he was in 'the garden' He asked God to remove the weight from him if there was any other way to atone for us. He himself didn't want to go through with it, but did anyway, for us.
Like the Savior, we are not sinning by not wanting to get up and go to church, serve in our callings, etc. It's only when we choose to act upon those feeling that we have need to repent. The feelings themselves are not the sin, so we needn't be so hard on ourselves.
Personally, I thought this was pretty insightful, the woman teaching, however, just stared at me blankly in silence. (I imagined a cricket in the room... "chirp, chirp...." After a few very long, uncomfortable moments, she moved on as if I'd said nothing. Strange.
"It makes sense, doesn't it?", I asked the girl beside me. She assured me it made perfect sense.
I just figure, that as women, we beat ourselves up A LOT. Well, isn't it nice to know here's one less reason to do so? I sure think so!
4 comments:
I think so too, Mindee. I think you are absolutely right, and I think it is a common misconception that we have, that being tempted is the same as sinning - even Christ was tempted by Satan, and so we have to differentiate between being tempted, and actually dwelling on it and acting on it... very different things. Thanks for this reminder! We're all humans just trying to do our best.
I think it makes sense, too. That's something I had to realize, since I used to feel guilty about not wanting to do things. So, hopefully people will think about your comment, and maybe they will feel better, too.
I think it makes perfect sense. :)
Wow, what a great concept. That makes perfect sense to me. And something I need to teach my children. Feeling annoyed, frustrated, angry, etc., is okay. It doesn't mean I have to act on that feeling, but acknowledge it and move on. I love that.
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