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As We Think of Jesus Christ

 Today, we reviewed Elder Matthew Holland's talk entitled The Exquisite Gift of the Son. 

As we did, here are some thoughts that came to my mind

How did we feel when we left the pre-mortal realm to come down here? How did we agree to all this difficult stuff? That took a lot of faith. And kudos to all of us for even choosing to come down here. Christ is here with us. But he does let us feel pain and agony. He doesn’t take it away immediately because we might need it to become perfected, but he does sit there with us and help us. He supports us. He is right there with us. He knows how we feel, perfectly.

I encourage all of you to watch the Pixar movie, Soul. It has some incredibly deep stuff about life, living in the moment, and touches on the feeling of uncertainty and fear we had when we came down to earth, away from a place we knew and down to a place where we knew things would be gut-wrenching, soul-stretching, and emotionally difficult.

From Elder Jeffrey R. Holland, Missionary Work and the Atonement

"When you struggle, when you are rejected, when you are spit upon and cast out and made a hiss and a byword, you are standing with the best life this world has ever known, the only pure and perfect life ever lived. You have reason to stand tall and be grateful that the Living Son of the Living God knows all about your sorrows and afflictions. The only way to salvation is through Gethsemane and on to Calvary. The only way to eternity is through Him—the Way, the Truth, and the Life."

I wonder how we felt watching Jesus Christ perform the atonement. I wonder how deeply we ached for him to push through. I can’t even imagine the gratitude we must have felt.

May we always feel that gratitude. May we always repent. May we always share his perfect love with others. May we invite people to come unto him. May we share the experiences we've had with our Savior. And may we one day return to live with our Savior and Father in Heaven with our families. 

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