Happy {Day 75}

You know, I've started to write all about why the Gospel makes me happy a few times since I started this 100 Days of Happy thing, and I've always erased it and put it off for another day. Not because I didn't have anything to say. Quite the opposite. There was so much I could say and I had a hard time trying to succinctly put it into one blog post.

Until today.

img from here

Our lesson in Sunday School was about the adulterous woman brought before Christ in the New Testament. It's one of those stories that has always passed me by without a lot of deep thought. But today, our teacher read a quote by Chieko N. Okazaki (a previous counselor in the Relief Society General Presidency) that shed a whole new light on the story for me. Here, she's speaking of Christ and the impact he had on the woman's life:

Think of the balm he poured on that woman's bruised spirit! She was guilty as charged, and he acknowledged that by telling her to leave her sins behind her. But he told her to go as a free woman into that new life. He did not make her acknowledge her guilt. He did not humiliate her. He did not rub her nose in it. Think of the empowerment with which she stepped forward into that new life!

This story about Jesus and the adulterous woman teaches us about self-esteem based on having a personal, firsthand understanding of the Savior and his charity, or pure love. Today we are barraged by accusing voices. People seem to stand in line to condemn us. And if the line gets short, we stand in it ourselves to make ourselves feel guilty. We feel guilty for things we have done, for things we haven't done, for things we did but did wrong, for doing too much, for doing too little, for doing things at the wrong time, for doing things at the wrong place, for wearing the wrong color of shoes when we did them—you name it! We're guilty!

What is the message of the gospel? Is it that we're weak, frail sinners? That Heavenly Father is disgusted and angry with us? That Jesus is sorry he died for us because it was a real waste of the Atonement? That all the angels have decided that giving us agency was a stupid thing to do? No! The message of the scriptures is that nothing can separate us from the love of Christ. (Lighten Up! [Salt Lake City: Deseret Book Co., 1993], pp. 156 - 157)

And that, my friends, is why this Gospel makes me so happy. Christ lives and he loves me. I know he loves me - unconditionally. Just like he loves this woman in the scriptures. And I know that nothing can "separate me from the love of Christ."

(By the way, only 25 more days - I'm almost there!)