The Most Real Thing Ever To Exist

Some quotes from Dieter F Uchtdorf's April 2021 address: "The Savior’s infinite Atonement completely changes the way we may view our transgressions and imperfections. Instead of dwelling on them and feeling irredeemable or hopeless, we can learn from them and feel hopeful." "Because of Jesus Christ, our failures do not have to define us. They can refine us." "If we repent, mistakes do not disqualify us. They are part of our progress." The most real thing ever to exist is the Atonement of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. It is realer than any of our sins or the consequences thereof and it is realer than any self delusions about our own worthiness and potential. Damnation is as much an attitude and state of mind as it is the reality of our situation. If we feel damned then it is because we choose to feel that way. There is virtually nothing we can do that the Atonement does not cover. In point of fact, there is nothing that we have done nor nothing that we will ever do that has not already been covered by the Atonement. Sometimes when we are wading through much grief and sorrow because of our transgressions, we convince ourselves that finally we have reached the point of no return, that repentance is no longer an option, that this time we have gone too far. It's not true. Christ already atoned for every sin we will ever make before we were even born. That doesn't give us carte blanche to do whatever we want, but it should help us realize that Christ knew from the get go that learning and growing in this mortal life means making lots of mistakes, some of them seeming pretty large, but He went and paid for all of them anyway. It should help us to know that there is no moment in our life where Christ is going to tap out and say He's had enough, we're on our own from this point. Sins have as much power over us as we choose to let them, just as Christ and His Atonement have as much power over us as we choose to allow. We don't have to circle back around again and again and live in our mistakes. Christ can break the cycle, he can break the chains which hold us in place. We can learn and move onward and upward. We do not need to be defined by our sins, but thanks to the Atonement, we can be refined by our sins as we repent and accept the Lord's grace which awaits us moment to moment every second of our lives.