This week was great! We took some recent converts to do temple baptisms, they were so excited and they truly loved the experience. We are super excited for them! We got a couple of new investigators this week and this area is starting to pick up. Even though I'm leaving I am still so happy!
Spiritual thought for today is found in the April 1977 talk The Mediator By Boyd K Packer.
In this talk he shares a story it goes like this, "There once was a man who wanted something very much. It seemed more important than anything else in his life. In order for him to have his desire, he incurred a great debt. He had been warned about going into that much debt, and particularly about his creditor. But it seemed so important for him to do what he wanted to do and to have what he wanted right now. He was sure he could pay for it later. So he signed a contract. He would pay it off some time along the way. He didn’t worry too much about it, for the due date seemed such a long time away. He had what he wanted now, and that was what seemed important. The creditor was always somewhere in the back of his mind, and he made token payments now and again, thinking somehow that the day of reckoning really would never come. But as it always does, the day came, and the contract fell due. The debt had not been fully paid. His creditor appeared and demanded payment in full. Only then did he realize that his creditor not only had the power to repossess all that he owned, but the power to cast him into prison as well. “I cannot pay you, for I have not the power to do so,” he confessed. “Then,” said the creditor, “we will exercise the contract, take your possessions, and you shall go to prison. You agreed to that. It was your choice. You signed the contract, and now it must be enforced.” "Can you not extend the time or forgive the debt?” the debtor begged. “Arrange some way for me to keep what I have and not go to prison. Surely you believe in mercy? Will you not show mercy?” The creditor replied, “Mercy is always so one-sided. It would serve only you. If I show mercy to you, it will leave me unpaid. It is justice I demand. Do you believe in justice?” “I believed in justice when I signed the contract,” the debtor said. “It was on my side then, for I thought it would protect me. I did not need mercy then, nor think I should need it ever. Justice, I thought, would serve both of us equally as well.” “It is justice that demands that you pay the contract or suffer the penalty,” the creditor replied. “That is the law. You have agreed to it and that is the way it must be. Mercy cannot rob justice.” There they were: One meting out justice, the other pleading for mercy. Neither could prevail except at the expense of the other. “If you do not forgive the debt there will be no mercy,” the debtor pleaded.
“If I do, there will be no justice,” was the reply.
Both laws, it seemed, could not be served. They are two eternal ideals that appear to contradict one another. Is there no way for justice to be fully served, and mercy also?
There is a way! The law of justice can be fully satisfied and mercy can be fully extended—but it takes someone else. And so it happened this time.
The debtor had a friend. He came to help. He knew the debtor well. He knew him to be shortsighted. He thought him foolish to have gotten himself into such a predicament. Nevertheless, he wanted to help because he loved him. He stepped between them, faced the creditor, and made this offer.
“I will pay the debt if you will free the debtor from his contract so that he may keep his possessions and not go to prison.”
As the creditor was pondering the offer, the mediator added, “You demanded justice. Though he cannot pay you, I will do so. You will have been justly dealt with and can ask no more. It would not be just.”
And so the creditor agreed.
The mediator turned then to the debtor. “If I pay your debt, will you accept me as your creditor?”
“Oh yes, yes,” cried the debtor. “You save me from prison and show mercy to me.”
“Then,” said the benefactor, “you will pay the debt to me and I will set the terms. It will not be easy, but it will be possible. I will provide a way. You need not go to prison.”
Jesus Christ in our Mediator, because in life we continually add up that debt, but when the time comes, and it will for all of us. The money will be due and we will not be able to pay for it all. Our Savior Jesus Christ has already played for our debt, we just have to accept him as our new creditor and follow his commandments we can truly find peace and happiness.
Love Elder Cox
**Side Note--I got a text just about 30 minutes before I got his letter. It was from a teacher at Granger High School who went to her cousin's house in California for Thanksgiving, and her cousin also had the missionaries over and my son was one of those missionaires!! She sent me 3 pictures and a video. The video isn't loading for some reason so I'll post that to Facebook and Instagram. Tender mercy for sure!!**
PICTURES
1-3 Thanksgiving
4 Exchanges with Elder Williams
5 Me just chillin
6-8 The temple with Steven and Grace
9 BOBA Time
No comments:
Post a Comment