Happy Easter!

The story of Jesus Christ and his atoning sacrifice has not always made much sense to me. In fact, it made no sense to me for a long time. I am a very literal and analytical thinker... and my first attempts at making sense of the things that were taught me at home and in church reminds me of when I was an elementary student. Teachers would tell us to close our eyes and imagine a certain picture or scene. I would close my eyes and expect to see a literal visual picture appear in my mind. I would focus intensely - so intensely that little white blobs of nothing would start to appear behind my eye lids. I remember thinking - that if I just concentrated a little harder... I might just see what it was that I was supposed to be seeing. I remember thinking - that I was doing something wrong... and why could every body else do this so easily? Similarly, the story of the atonement seemed like something good and something attainable (at least by everybody else), yet as hard as I tried... I just could not get a clear picture of what I was supposed to be seeing. Today, I have just been thinking about the atonement and how real and precious it has become to me... how clear my picture seems for me. I wanted to pinpoint the exact time when it clicked. But as I look back, I cannot think of that moment. However, I do know that through exercising a particle of faith in concepts I did not understand... somehow... over time... my picture came together. Somehow, I inserted my damaged and insecure self into the little black box (called the atonement) and I came out transformed into a new creature... a better and more confident person with a new faith in my Savior, Jesus Christ.

I'm being released today as Young Women's President in my church (a calling I've served in for the past 4 1/2 years and as a counselor 2 years before that) and have been asked to bear my testimony in church today as I pass the baton to somebody else. I am excited for the new chapter in my life and in the lives of my youth... but I hope as I leave that they know that I do believe in the power of the atonement and that I do believe that each of us are literal sons and daughters of a Heavenly Father, a title which if truly understood, can help each of us stand a little taller and have the desire to be a little bit more divine - because we know who we are and who we are designed to be.

"Our deapest fear is not that we are inadequate. Our deepest fear is that we are powerful beyond measure. It is our Light, not our Darkness, that most frightens us. We ask ourselves, who am I to be brilliant, gorgeous, talented, fabulous? Actually, who are you NOT to be? You are a child of God. Your playing small does not serve the world. There is nothing enlightening about shrinking so that other people won't feel unsure around you. We were born to make manifest the glory of God that is within us. It is not just in some of us; it is in everyone. As we let our own Light shine, we unconsciously give other people permission to do the same. As we are liberated from our own fear, our presence automatically liberates others." Marianne Williamson