"Remember how merciful the Lord hath been"

It feels like it's time to write again...

I finished the Book of Mormon just as 2019 ended, perfect timing to begin again on track with Come Follow Me for this year. In the final chapter, Moroni 10 verse 3, Moroni says, "I would exhort you that when ye shall read these things...that ye would remember how merciful the Lord hath been unto the children of men." The phrase struck me. I wrote it on a small piece of paper, and decided to keep it in my scriptures so that I see it each time I open them up to read.

There is so much in this life that is convoluted and confusing. Opportunities for distraction are everywhere; it is so easy to miss the mark. Things are never perfect; there's always something that could be at least a little bit better.

But what about all that is right? All that is good and happy and beautiful in our lives?

Sometimes when I truly think of the Lord's blessings, when I "remember how merciful the Lord hath been unto [me]," it's staggering. Are there things I don't understand, things I would change if I could? Certainly. But I cannot deny the abundance of His "tender mercies" in my life.

Gabe. An honorable parentage. Access to good books, the best books. Good friends who are a strength to me. My testimony and faith. The temple. Financial means to provide for our needs - the necessities and some of the wants. The ability to try again, and again, and again as I falter and fail each day.

The abundant mercy of that last one becomes ever more apparent to me. I remember struggling as a teenager to grasp and understand the place of the Savior's atonement in my life. What great sins had I ever committed that I needed to repent of?

But as time goes on, the words of men such as Nephi and King Benjamin become more real and visceral to me.
          "O wretched man that I am! ...my heart sorroweth because of my flesh...I am encompassed about, because of the temptations which do so easily beset me."
          "I say, if ye should serve him with all your whole souls yet ye would be unprofitable servants...ye are indebted unto him...and are, and will be, forever and ever..."

But the beauty is that the Lord doesn't see us that way. We are not His "unprofitable servants," we are "[His] work and [His] glory." When we see ourselves not measuring up, He simply says, "try again." And not just, "keep trying," but "let me help you get there."

It's so easy to look at ourselves from day to day and feel like we're getting nowhere. That's when the long view makes all the difference. I look at the day to day and just see myself failing again and again to make the changes and improvements I want in my life. But step back a few years, look at where you are now compared to then. Use that as your measuring tool instead of where you were yesterday, and it makes all the difference.

And what is it that has brought you to where you are? The tender mercies of the Lord, the enabling power of the atonement of Jesus Christ. We literally could not do it without Him. It is His grace, His mercy, His merits, that gives us the power to overcome, the power to become. Until someday, "that when he shall appear we shall be like him, for we shall see him as he is."

Yes, "remember how merciful the Lord hath been unto the children of men."