Karen at Over the Backyard Fence has a beautiful post up right now about the five things she loves most about Jesus Christ, and invited anyone who wanted to share to do so on their blogs. It's so hard to encapsulate my thoughts and feelings into a list of just five, but I've been thinking about it for a couple of days and now would like to post my list.
1. Jesus Christ is accessible to us. We can reach Him at any time in prayer, He listens, and He answers. Sometimes we have to wait a little while for the answer, and sometimes it's a no, but He always does answer. We don't have to make an appointment or be an ordained minister to merit His attention -- He listens to each and every soul on this earth.
2. He understands each of us perfectly. He knew us before we came to this earth, we are more dear to Him than we can possibly imagine, and when we have a trial in our lives, He knows how we feel and He deeply cares.
3. He gives me hope and joy. It is because of Him that I look forward to every day. Whenever I start to feel discouraged, I know I can lean on Him to take away that discouragement and to give me the strength to conquer whatever it is that troubles me. He doesn't give us darkness; He gives us light.
4. He always wants what is for our best good. The commandments aren't there to fetter us or to take away our fun -- they are there because by living those principles, we find the most joy and happiness. He never asks us to do anything that would bring us misery.
5. He is the pathway back. He laid the markers, He showed the way, He told us how to do it, and offered to help us succeed. He made it so incredibly simple -- we just make it harder for ourselves by not listening. But He outlined every step for us so that if we just follow Him, we can return to the presence of our Heavenly Father and live with Him eternally. It's a precious gift that He holds out with both hands, if we'll just take it.
My thanks to Karen for passing on such a thought-provoking blog theme.
4 comments:
What a great idea Karen and Tristi. I loved reading your thoughts on the Savior. I love Him so much and am so grateful that I'll have to ponder on this as I run around today. I will definitely post about this tomorrow.
Beautiful post. Gives me some food for thought as I consider how I feel about the Savior.
What a great post to read on a quiet Sunday afternoon. Especially when our Sunday School lesson dealt with the the Savior's last days. I need to contemplate his gifts more often. Thanks
I love your answers, Tristi, especially #1. The picture in this post is one that our Girl Scout troop gave as a gift to our parish school. It hangs outside the school office. It's beautiful 'in person'.
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