Perfection

Elder Todd D. Christofferson wrote an article published in the June 2001 Ensign entitled Justification and Sanctification.  Near the end of the article he addresses the topic of perfection.  I have a desire for everyone and everything to be perfect.  I have this idea in my head that if I just did everything "right" then things would be perfect.  I wouldn't have kids who act like kids, I wouldn't have PMDD, my house would always be clean, etc.  I know this idea is wrong and I am working on changing it.  I really enjoyed Elder Christofferson's article.  He reminds me that we can only become perfect through Christ and even then not in this life.  Here are some quotes I really enjoyed:

This personal persistence in the path of obedience is something different than achieving perfection in mortality. Perfection is not, as some suppose, a prerequisite for justification and sanctification. It is just the opposite: justification (being pardoned) and sanctification (being purified) are the prerequisites for perfection. We only become perfect “in Christ” (see Moro. 10:32), not independently of Him. Thus, what is required of us in order to obtain mercy in the day of judgment is simple diligence. As the Prophet Joseph Smith counseled from the dank prison of Liberty, Missouri: “Let us cheerfully do all things that lie in our power; and then may we stand still, with the utmost assurance, to see the salvation of God, and for his arm to be revealed” (D&C 123:17; see alsoMosiah 4:27).

Elder Bruce R. McConkie (1915–85) of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles once expressed our obligation this way:

“Everyone in the Church who is on the straight and narrow path, who is striving and struggling and desiring to do what is right, though far from perfect in this life; if he passes out of this life while he’s on the straight and narrow, he’s going to go on to eternal reward in his Father’s kingdom.

“We don’t need to get a complex or get a feeling that you have to be perfect to be saved. … The way it operates is this: you get on the path that’s named the ‘straight and narrow.’ You do it by entering the gate of repentance and baptism. The straight and narrow path leads from the gate of repentance and baptism, a very great distance, to a reward that’s called eternal life. … Now is the time and the day of your salvation, so if you’re working zealously in this life—though you haven’t fully overcome the world and you haven’t done all you hoped you might do—you’re still going to be saved” (“The Probationary Test of Mortality,” Salt Lake Institute of Religion devotional, 10 Jan. 1982, 12).

When we stand before the Savior to be judged of Him, it will be “according to our works and the desires of our hearts” (“The Living Christ,” 3; see also D&C 137:9). Where we can act, where we have the capacity and the means, we must act if we are to retain a justified and sanctified status. But where we legitimately and truly cannot act, the Lord will accept the desire for the deed.    (emphasis added)

I am reminded that Perfection is NOT attained in this life.  That through things such as simple as daily scripture study "my works and the desires of our hearts" I can eventually obtain perfection through Christ.  When "we legitimately and truly cannot act" like when I am in the turmoil of PMDD "The Lord will accept the desire for the deed."  How grateful I am for a Father in Heaven who is so merciful, who does not expect me to do it all on my own, and who accepts that I will not be perfect in this life.  I am also so grateful for a Savior who did life a perfect life and who sacrificed Himself, who suffered for me that someday I can reach perfection through HIM.