the natural man.
Growing up, I had a hard time understanding the concept of the Atonement and how it applied to my life. I understood that, through the Atonement, we could be forgiven of our sins, but to me, sins meant things like killing people, stealing, or committing adultery. I struggled to see why the Atonement was significant for someone like me, who, to be honest, didn’t seem to have many sins. It took me a while to realize that the Atonement can be applied to so much more than just our sins – it can be applied to any trials or afflictions we have. This was a huge breakthrough for me, because, as I got older, my biggest demons weren’t sins. My demons were more along the lines of mental battles: anxiety, depression, and just general insecurity. When I figured out that the Atonement could help me with those things, it changed my whole perspective of the Savior’s role in my life.
Since then, I've learned more and more about how the Atonement affects every day. A simple experience I had while at BYU gave me a pattern for how I could it apply it more fully to each decision in my life.
In the first few weeks of fall semester last year, I realized I that, three days of the week, my first class wasn't till 11:00, an unusually late time for me. I needed to decide what my morning routine was going to be, and, being a college student, my first inclination was to sleep in and get some extra rest those three days of the week. Yet I kept feeling prompted to wake up early instead to allow time for running, reading the scriptures, and getting any homework done before class. I had always done my exercise and scripture study at night, so to start doing it in the morning caused some concern in my little mind.
Despite my doubts, I followed through with those promptings, flip-flopping my schedule and getting up around 7-7:30 am to go for a run then come back and read scriptures. I found that, by doing this routine in the morning rather than at night, the exercise made me happier and more alert, and I was able to do my scripture study without nodding off every few minutes. I wasn't perfect at maintaining this routine, but when I stuck to it, everything seemed to work out better throughout the day and I felt more like myself.
I was reflecting on what had occurred after changing my routine when a friend on mine posted this quote from Elder F. Enzio Busche on Facebook:
“God knows better than you what you need. He always attempts to speak to you. Listen, and follow the uncomfortable suggestions that He makes to us – everything will fall into its place.”
Since then, I've learned more and more about how the Atonement affects every day. A simple experience I had while at BYU gave me a pattern for how I could it apply it more fully to each decision in my life.
In the first few weeks of fall semester last year, I realized I that, three days of the week, my first class wasn't till 11:00, an unusually late time for me. I needed to decide what my morning routine was going to be, and, being a college student, my first inclination was to sleep in and get some extra rest those three days of the week. Yet I kept feeling prompted to wake up early instead to allow time for running, reading the scriptures, and getting any homework done before class. I had always done my exercise and scripture study at night, so to start doing it in the morning caused some concern in my little mind.
Despite my doubts, I followed through with those promptings, flip-flopping my schedule and getting up around 7-7:30 am to go for a run then come back and read scriptures. I found that, by doing this routine in the morning rather than at night, the exercise made me happier and more alert, and I was able to do my scripture study without nodding off every few minutes. I wasn't perfect at maintaining this routine, but when I stuck to it, everything seemed to work out better throughout the day and I felt more like myself.
I was reflecting on what had occurred after changing my routine when a friend on mine posted this quote from Elder F. Enzio Busche on Facebook:
“God knows better than you what you need. He always attempts to speak to you. Listen, and follow the uncomfortable suggestions that He makes to us – everything will fall into its place.”
I also had felt the need to look up Mosiah 3:19 --
"For the natural man is an enemy to God, and has been from the fall of Adam, and will be, forever and ever, unless he yields to the enticings of the Holy Spirit, and putteth off the natural man and becometh a saint through the atonement of Christ the Lord, and becometh as a child, submissive, meek, humble, patient, full of love, willing to submit to all things which the Lord seeth fit to inflict upon him, even as a child doth submit to his father."
After reading both the quote and the scripture, I had a major epiphany, major enough that I took the time to write it down in my journal. This is what I wrote:
Mosiah 3:19. The natural man is an enemy to God, and forever will be
unless he yields to the enticings of the Holy Spirit. I think I’ve always
thought of “the natural man” as being our carnal nature – greedy, immoral,
selfish, dirty, judgmental, worldly – those adjectives that you really just
don’t want to be. But it occurred to me this morning that there are aspects of
the natural man that aren’t necessarily wicked, but can keep us from becoming
as Christlike as possible. For example, hitting the snooze button for a good
half hour before getting out of bed, wasting a precious 30 minutes in the
process – 30 minutes that could have been used running, studying the
scriptures, preparing to teach Sunday School, getting homework done, writing
letters, etc.
That might be a bit of an extreme example… But when I’ve received the feeling that I should wake up early so as to be more productive and to start my day off right, I’m resorting back to my natural inclination for comfort and rest if I just hit the snooze button instead. It takes a lot of faith to completely trust in and act on the promptings we receive. Often, the promptings will seem uncomfortable – or, rather, the thing they’re prompting us to do will seem uncomfortable. But you know what? You just have to GO FOR IT and know/trust/have faith that things will work out as they should.
That might be a bit of an extreme example… But when I’ve received the feeling that I should wake up early so as to be more productive and to start my day off right, I’m resorting back to my natural inclination for comfort and rest if I just hit the snooze button instead. It takes a lot of faith to completely trust in and act on the promptings we receive. Often, the promptings will seem uncomfortable – or, rather, the thing they’re prompting us to do will seem uncomfortable. But you know what? You just have to GO FOR IT and know/trust/have faith that things will work out as they should.
Through this incredibly simple experience, I learned
a huge principle that would play a key role in the coming months of
my life. I learned that a crucial part of applying the Atonement in our lives
requires listening to and acting on promptings from the Spirit. I learned that,
often the Spirit prompts us to do things that we’d rather not do and that might
cause some discomfort, but, in the end, will bring us greater happiness and
will make us better servants of Christ. I learned that, in order to become like
Christ and experience the joy only He can bring us, we must put off our natural
inclinations and choose to follow His will for us.
How grateful I am for the enticings of the Spirit and for the Atonement, both of which make it possible for us to acknowledge and follow through with ways to better ourselves, to become more like Christ, and to discover our inherently divine nature.
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