Fall of Adam

Happy Spring!

What a beautiful day to be taught the truths about the Fall of Adam.  I never grow weary of being reminded of the Garden of Eden and the necessary actions that took place there.  I am so thankful  for the focus this year going back to the basics. We all have things that we can learn even in the basics of the gospel.  Thank you teachers for turning your lesson’s into discussions which create different learning atmospheres where through the spirit you can be taught even things that aren’t being spoken.

I was reminded of an awesome talk today that I used while in leadership at the EFY program (Especially for Youth).  Every Wednesday night we taught the youth about the Fall.  It was always so surprising what some of the Youth of the church believed happened with the Fall and how confused they were about this principal.  I use the following quote to emphasize that the Fall was a very necessary and good thing and not something that tainted us. We ALL needed the Fall as much as we needed the Atonement to return home to our Father in Heaven.

“The Fall was not a disaster. It wasn’t a mistake or an accident. It was a deliberate part of the plan of salvation. We are God’s spirit “offspring,” sent to earth “innocent” of Adam’s transgression. Yet our Father’s plan subjects us to temptation and misery in this fallen world as the price to comprehend authentic joy. Without tasting the bitter, we actually cannot understand the sweet.  We require mortality’s discipline and refinement as the “next step in [our] development” toward becoming like our Father. But growth means growing pains. It also means learning from our mistakes in a continual process made possible by the Savior’s grace, which He extends both during and “after all we can do.”

Adam and Eve learned constantly from their often harsh experience. They knew how a troubled family feels. Think of Cain and Abel. Yet because of the Atonement, they could learn from their experience without being condemned by it. Christ’s sacrifice didn’t just erase their choices and return them to an Eden of innocence. That would be a story with no plot and no character growth. His plan is developmental—line upon line, step by step, grace for grace.

So if you have problems in your life, don’t assume there is something wrong with you. Struggling with those problems is at the very core of life’s purpose. As we draw close to God, He will show us our weaknesses and through them make us wiser, stronger. If you’re seeing more of your weaknesses, that just might mean you’re moving nearer to God, not farther away.”

Bruce C. Hafen, “The Atonement: All for All,” Ensign, May 2004, 97

We all have problems in our lives.  Times of extreme difficulty where we wonder why things have to be so hard.  If we could only remind ourselves  of the true principle that is taught, “without the bitter we could not experience the sweet… and the Lord’s grace will attend us after all we can do!”

 I am personally experiencing a bitter point with the passing of my OWN Grandma this week and getting ready to go to the funeral in Iowa with not the best situations there to face.  I will be thinking about this and reminding myself to look for the sweetness in this time and to allow learning and growth to come into my life through some of the harsh things going on around me.

I want you to know that I am so thankful that because of the Fall I too am able to fall and be healed through the Atonement of Christ.  He knows all our pains and the aches of our hearts that may not necessarily be our fault. With Faith in Him we will be made whole.

Thank you for the strength that I see in your eyes.  Thank you for enduring hard things so that we can all be taught by one another. Thank you for your unconditional love and charity.

With Admiration!

Meg