Lesson # 1 Gathering

Institute was from 6 to 7:30. I will add more about that later.

I would like to begin this week's reflection with an analysis of Doctrine and Covenants 6:36, which basically says that it is by faith and by acting in faith that we become courageous enough to keep enduring the insanity of mortality.

Acting in faith includes teaching and to teach, we must first learn and to learn, we must be willing to accept that we will eventually have to teach what we have learned in order to keep the knowledge in practice and to also learn how to better apply it in our own lives.

When it comes to free agency, there are two ways to use it; properly or improperly. It is IMPOSSIBLE to engage in a bad behavior or make a bad choice without hurting a person, as we ourselves are people and when the Spirit leaves us due to bad behaviors that are not repented of, the absence of that presence will surely come to cause us pain when we come to feel that loss.  It may take time for us to feel the absence of the Spirit when we lose it, but we will eventually feel that something is missing and the pain of loss will accompany the realization that something has been lost.

By making correct choices with our gift of free agency, however, we will not need to go through the grieving period that comes when the Spirit is lost and we acknowledge the loss as being real and has come as a result of our own bad behavior. Ultimately, it is by our choice as to whether or not we keep the Spirit with us and it is by our own choice when we lose the Spirit as to whether or not we utilize the Atonement to get the Spirit back into our lives.

Without the Spirit, we cannot hope to be taught what we need to learn nor can we learn to teach what others may need to learn. We cannot be an instrument of the Lord without His Spirit.