The Atonement

I teach Relief Society, the women's organization at my church, and I love it.  It is the first time in a very, very long time that I haven't had a church calling as a music person.  Not that I don't also enjoy doing music, and I feel needed there (playing the organ is just not a skill on most people's resumes, and not many folks like to teach the children how to sing.).  But it has been nice to do something else for a change.  I love teaching the women in my ward, and I just love teaching.  But the main benefit of it is that I get to study - really study - principles of Christ's gospel.  These are the principles I use to base my life, to steady my course.  I so enjoy being able to immerse myself in the learning and examining and thinking and questioning that we all should be doing about the things we believe in - religious or not.

The lesson I've been working on is a talk given by Linda Burton at last fall's Women's Conference:  Is Faith in the Atonement of Jesus Christ Written in Our Hearts?  Wonderful, wonderful.  She is the general president of the whole Relief Society, which actually is the largest women's organization in the world.  He job is, to me, un-envy-able.  But she pulls it off so well!

So I've been studying the Atonement as I've gone over (and over and over) her talk.  Here are the main ideas:

I am so grateful that I've been knee-deep in the edifying principles of the Atonement this week, because I was blind-sided by some really, really difficult situations.  I've been hurt in a spot that was already wounded, and caught off-guard by something I never wanted to see.  But I've made it through, by relying on these principles.

I worked and organized and wrote and planned and spent a lot of time preparing this lesson.  And then, literally moments before I was to stand up and start talking, I found out that I prepared from the wrong Conference address.  The wrong one!  Noooooooo!

Life happens that way sometimes.  And with His help, we can still make it through (and even laugh about it later).