2.28 You Are Not Your Mistakes

In Matthew 5:13, Jesus calls us the salt of the earth, a bold reminder that our lives are meant to carry his flavor, his truth, and his love to the world. Join me each day to explore one verse of scripture and one thought, striving to stay full of savor and truly live as savory salt. Hello, my friends, great to have you with me.

Today let's be anxiously engaged in a good cause and bring to pass much righteousness. Welcome back. I am so excited to have you join in this week.

There are some incredible scriptures for us to focus on. I'm having a hard time picking some verses, I gotta be honest. But today's message I'm going to include with the podcast episode.

A link to a song that I've played for years with my girls that is inside of the LDS Music app. I hope the link that I send is available to anybody that clicks on the link. But we're going to actually stay inside of Doctrine and Covenants Section 3 today.

Remember this week you're reading Doctrine and Covenants Sections 3 through 5 and First Nephi Chapters 13 through 17. Such good stuff, and it's been hard to pick these, but today's verse comes out again of Section 3. And this is Joseph's really broadcast and public mistake.

I mean, he made mistakes as he talked about in his own Joseph Smith—History, and yet this one really broadcast. He kind of gets a pretty good lashing from the Lord inside of Doctrine and Covenants 3. And our verse for today speaks, I believe, not just to Joseph, but to all of us.

It's in Doctrine and Covenants Section 3, verse 10. And I'd encourage you to keep 9, 10 together, but really at the end of 9, a phrase that you could spend a half hour, if not more, pondering, just in this phrase: 'If thou art not aware.' I want you to kind of think about that as this lead into verse 10, because this is what the Lord says in verse 10. I love it.

But remember, God is merciful. Therefore, repent of that which thou hast done, which is contrary to the commandments which I gave you. And thou art still chosen and art again called to the work.

My friends, I got friends in my own life that have gone through different challenges in their lives and decided to make some life choices that were not in line with the commandments. We all have done that. We all sinned.

We all fall short. And yet I love this verse here because it reminds me, it reminds you, and it reminds Joseph that not only is God merciful, but as soon as you repent, you still chosen and you are called again to the work. I love those segments, and the song that came to mind is a song that's from the 2019 youth album, and it's called "You're Not Your Mistakes." And I'm going to put a link inside of it, but I just want to read the chorus of this.

Hopefully you take some time to listen to it. But the chorus of this song says, 'You're not your mistakes. It's just something you do sometimes.' I am so grateful that Joseph Smith didn't make a mistake and just walk away.

I so grateful that I been able to learn from my mistakes, repent from them, and still feel the love of the Lord in my life as I come back to Him and felt Him tell me, 'Hey, Allen, you're still chosen and you're called to the work, so get up and get going and get back to the work.' My friends, our sins may temporarily pause the work that we can do for the Lord, but they don't stop us, and the Lord does not reject us. He loves us. He is merciful.

And I seek for that remembrance in my own life and in yours as well as you go forward. You're not your mistakes. You can do this.

We got this together. That's all for today, my friends. Lift up your heart and rejoice.

Cleave unto the covenants you have made and together we will be savory salt. For more information visit www.fema.org