Choice #3

“The worth of a soul is its capacity to become as God.” (President Thomas S. Monson, “The Service That Counts,” Ensign, November 1989, 45)

What do you learn in these revelations that helps you better understand the worth of a soul in the eyes of the Lord? Please describe five meaningful scriptures in these revelations that increase your understanding of the worth of a soul.

Verse 11: I think reading President Monson’s quote about the worth of souls really changed the way I view this verse. The fact is we know that Christ atoned for our sins. We know that he went on the cross for us and in a very individual manner, but something I don’t think I’ve really thought about is what he bought with his blood and life. He bought us opportunity. He bought us the opportunity to repent and change so that we could realize the full capacity of our souls.

Verse 15: This scripture brings me a lot of hope. I served in the Croatia-Slovenia mission, which has long been thought of as a ‘non-baptizing’ mission. While this isn’t altogether true, my brother, who served in Mexico City, baptized more people by himself in two years than my entire mission did in the year 2005., in fact the highest baptizing missionary I can think of baptized 5 people, and about 60% of them were inactive by the time he had been home for one year. My point here is some missionaries don’t have the opportunity to baptize hundreds of people and are able to write home every week about how their group baptism of 20 converts went, but hard work on behalf of your fellow brothers and sisters will always pay off. I also understand that this verse isn’t just directed towards the missionaries that wear a tag. We can do so much in our daily lives to be missionaries to those that we work with, associate with or just spend an airplane ride next to.

Verse 13: I have decided that I love this verse. It helps me understand how much our Heavenly Father loves us. I am a classically trained cellist. I have played the cello since I was 3.5 years old. I have also been in the elite choir of BYU-Idaho, and enjoyed a lot of musical success in my life. During my first semester in the Collegiate Singers a far more experienced singer than myself (as well as a dear friend) once helped me get over some pretty bad stage fright I was dealing with. He told me that, ‘the audience wants you to do well. They would not come here hoping that you were going to fail or sound terrible or anything like that. They want you to do well more than you do.’ I believe this is the same perspective our Heavenly Father has with us. Why would a loving, caring and concerned Father in Heaven send us here hoping or expecting us to fail? He wouldn’t.

Verse 12: I love how straight-forward this verse it. There is no beating around the bush with this one. It teaches three very important pieces of pure doctrine. First of all the verse teaches that Christ did die for us, and he broke the bands of death through his resurrection. Secondly, it teaches that He intends to save as many of us as He possibly can (our agency being the key factor there). Thirdly, we can learn that there is only one way that we can get achieve the lofty goal of eternal life and salvation and that is through repentance. The Lord has set conditions of entry for the Kingdom of Heaven. They aren’t secret conditions or require anything beyond our current capability; he spells them out for us. The Lord wants us to repent, and if we do fully, he will allow us to enter his Kingdom.

Verse 14: I love this verse. This verse hearkens back to some of the prior sections that we have gone over already but, again, I love the simplicity involved here. The Lord has a church-wide calling given to every member of the Church and that is to cry repentance to our generation. I also like the word ‘cry’ here. I don’t think the Lord means the way my two year old niece cries (for attention and honestly is faking it 99% of the time) but the way my two week old daughter does it. My daughter cries with her entire body and it is usually over something as important as something that will sustain her life better than the love and affection of her parents; food. She doesn’t just screaming either, she starts off with a face of intense emotion, letting us know that there is something highly important to her that I am neglecting to see, if her need is ignored further this face of emotion becomes far more intense and she will start to squirm and wiggle further trying to get my attention to the ever-pressing matter. Eventually, if she is ignored further, she will start to cry loudly letting us know that she means business.