Mulan - Reflection

Who do you see in the Mirror?

When our Reflection shows our Love for the Savior, and our Internal desire for good, then we are true Disciples of Christ.

We dont have to be perfect, but we do need to do our best.  I myself will not be a Perfect Son or Husband, but I am sure going to do the best that I can.

Sometimes we feel that we are not 'meant to play this part'.  However, God has designed the Universe and EVERYTHING in it.  Including us.

As I have a moment of Reflection on my last two years as a missionary, I know that there were days that I didn't feel like I was adequate enough to 'play the part'.  I also hate the phrase, 'fake it til you make it'.  So I have probably not done the best that I could have, but the best the I felt I was able.  Often it takes the view of others to really let us know what we are truly Capable of.  I know that I have become a better person from sharing the Restored Gospel these last two years.

Do you ever wonder who it is in the Mirror?  Is your Reflection someone you 'Don't know'?

Sometimes we do things that make us feel bad afterwards, and then we get all frustrated inside.  This is the Devil tempting us, and saying that we are Worthless.  We are not worthless, because we are literally Children of our Heavenly Father.

"Remember the worth of souls is great in the sight of God;"

-- Doctrine and Covenants 18:10

When will our Reflection Show, Who WE ARE Inside?

"And now behold, I ask of you,...,

have ye spiritually been born of God?

Have ye received his image in your countenances?

Have ye experienced this mighty change in your hearts?"

-- Alma 5:14

When we have received His image in our countenance, Our Reflection will show who we are inside.  Many people say that 'True beauty is only found in the Heart'.

"But the Lord said unto Samuel,

Look not on his countenance,

or on the height of his stature;

because I have refused him:

for the Lord seeth not as man seeth;

for man looketh on the outward appearance,

but the Lord looketh on the heart."

-- 1 Samuel 16:7

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Lamps and Lightbulbs

So this one time I was trying to explain how priesthood Authority works, and why it is important.  I came up with my own story, and it goes something like this.


     Once upon a time there was a Lamp.  That Lamp was the Gospel.  Then Christ came to teach the Gospel, perform the Atonement, and establish His church.  The church Christ established is like a LampShade, it holds all the 'Light and Knowledge' of the Gospel.

     However, after the Resurrection of Jesus Christ the church was persecuted, and the Apostles who received Priesthood Authority were killed.  This means that the Lamp was broken, because no one had the Authority to direct Christ's Church.

     Less than 500 years later there were a small number of churches that had pieces of the broken Lamp.  People knew that something had been lost and they tried as best they could to reform the Lamp.  Roughly 1000 years later there were many churches, or many Lamps, that all claimed to be the "True Lamp".  That they each had part of that Lamp it is true, but none were the Lamp of the Gospel as it was supposed to be.

     Now we have a world where we can choose from many churches, almost like going to the store to buy a Lamp, there are planty of options.  Some Lamps are tall and flexible, some are short and round, others may be there more for looks than for light.

  

 


But even if the Lamp came close, the Lightbulb of Authority was still missing.  You see Christ is the 'Light of the world', and so even if you have all the components of a functioning Lamp only when He puts in the Lightbulb does that church give Light.

     In 1820 Joseph Smith asked God in prayer, which church to join.  Heavenly Father and Jesus Christ appeared to him and called him to be a new Prophet to restore His church to the Earth, exactly as it was when Christ was on the Earth.

     The same Lamp of the Gospel, with the same church organization or LampShade, was once again found on the Earth.  God gave the Authority of the Priesthood to Joseph Smith, who ordained others, and the Priesthood has never again left the Earth.