I am grateful for repentance. I have needed it more times than I'd like to admit but especially during this political season. On Sunday I listened to a talk given by Elder Holland in 2012 at a BYU devotional. During the speech he told three incidences that he knew about and from those he gave three lessons that we should learn from those stories. The first was "Never Check Your Religion at the Door." The second, "Show Compassion, but be Loyal to the Commandments and the third was Use Gospel Values to Benefit Communities and Countries." What humbled me was that I have had a tendency to check my religion at the door as I was disappointed by people I had held in high regard and in fact had to hold myself back from making snide comments about their poor choices! You are right as I'm sure you are thinking--who made you large and in charge?! Elder Holland said the following during that talk. "You never check your religion at the door. Not ever. My young friends, that kind of discipleship cannot be--it is not discipleship at all. As the prophet Alma has taught the young women of the Church to declare every week in the Young Women themes, we are "to stand as witnesses of God at all times and in all things, and in all places that we may be in. Not just some of the time, in a few places, or when our teams has a big lead." Because I disagreed with choices others make I had to remind myself that we are all given the gift of agency. What we do with that agency is between the person who made the choice and the Lord. It means they get to choose and I get to choose and if our choices are different so be it. Don't worry I didn't comment on Facebook about their opinion but I may have at times put a "Wow Emoji" or a "Sad Emoji" or an "Angry Emoji." You know ultimately we will all know the truth about our opinions. Were they good or were they poorly thought out--only time will tell. In the meantime there will only be one thing to remember--"You never check your religion at the door--not ever!"
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