Easter is my favorite time of year. I love watching the world around me come back to life. The beginning of April is always our Spring Break and we head out to California. It is the only vacation that I am excited to come back from because I know when we come back to Utah, the trees will be budding and the spring flowers will begin to start popping out of the ground.
My message this year is about change, small oftentimes imperceptible change. Over the past year and half, my two oldest kids have been serving missions for our church. Each Monday we get to Facetime and chat about the week, and all the things they learned and did throughout their week. I have loved Mondays. About a month ago, Cash, Charlee and I were on a call chatting and laughing. I sat, listened and watched their faces light up as they talked about teaching people about Jesus, or about how much they love their mission companion. I realized at that moment that I don’t even recognize them anymore.
Over the past year and a half they have literally grown and changed into new people. I was surprised and found myself crying, not because I was sad but because me, their own mother, didn’t even recognize her babies. Through the Lord and Savior, and their sacrifice to serve Him and the people of Montana, Wyoming, Massachusetts, and Connecticut, God had literally changed them into far greater people than I could ever imagine. Through tears of gratitude, I cried, and silently thanked My Heavenly Father for His magnificent miracles in their lives..
Fast forward-- I was sitting in church a couple of weeks ago. Preparing to give a talk, a talk that I wasn’t even sure what I was going to speak about other than change. As I pondered my thoughts during the sacrament, and I watched the young men break the bread and looked at the little cups of water, it dawned on me that little changes are all the Lord requires of us. Just as we partake of the sacrament in little bites and sips, the Lord asks us to do the same when it comes to striving to change. I thought how silly it would be if the sacrament was a whole loaf of bread and a water bottle, and only by eating and drinking all of it, would we show Him that we wanted to do better. Yet, I do sometimes think that is the kind of pressure we put on ourselves and if we are not changing “loaves” at a time then the effort is not worth it. But those kinds of changes are not realistic on a regular basis, and the Lord absolutely applauds our little efforts everyday. Very similar to the little bites and sips the Sacrament is administered in. It was in those thoughts that I knew what I was going to share ;)
This Easter season let us remember two things:
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The Lord can work incredible miracles in our lives. In His hands He can change us into new people.
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All the Lord asks of us is to get better a little bit everyday. Let Him do the rest of the work. The key piece to it all is The Atonement of our Savior Jesus Christ. Because Jesus died for our mistakes, and sorrows, and areas where we lack, we can trust that a little bite and sip each day of “doing better” will be enough. We can, through the enabling power of the Atonement, become new people… a little bit at time.
So with this Easter season, remember, the next time you partake of the sacrament that you are renewing your covenant with Him to change a little bit at a time, and He covenants with you, that because of His Atonement- that is enough. I want to end with this scripture…
”Therefore if any man be in Christ, he is a new creature: old things are passed away; behold, all things are become new.”
2 Corinthians 5:17
