Christ's grace and mercy and charity and long-suffering and kindness

 

Regardless of what I've done, no matter what I've accomplished in this life, and even if I've kept myself as clean and spotless and pure and holy as I could, I am still unworthy of any and all of the blessings Elohim and Jesus give me—the blessings are given to me only through Christ's grace and mercy and charity and long-suffering and kindness. I can't claim or demand anything, for I am unworthy of all but damnation...but through Christ I am given everything! Anything that I am given is literally thanks to Jesus Christ and his goodness and love! In answer to Alma's question, I and we have NO grounds to even hope for salvation, only but for God’s LOVE!

Now, out of love for Him, I will follow Him! He told me that I could be forgiven of my sins, be sanctified and glorified through His resurrection and the Atonement He paid, and He is a God of Truth and cannot lie (Enos 1:6 + Lectures on Faith 3:16).

Proximity and Frequency

 

I was thinking about my daughter, who just went-over to a neighborhood friend’s house, and wondered why now, and none of the other 3650 days (ok, she couldn’t have when she was a baby and wouldn’t have been able to until she was five or six [unless Claire’s parents were friends with my wife and I]), but hadn’t even wanted to during the two years that they were in pre-school together…  But it dawned on me: They are now in the same school class together! 

So, add age (maturity) + likes/dislikes + tastes + same grade + same class + the fact that we are in the same neighborhood = fast friends!

Age didn’t do it…  being in the same school didn’t do it… being in the same class didn’t do it…  either dislikes/likes…  add those all together and the fact that they live so close to each other, and voila!

Proximity

Speaking of proximity, just realizing that the same thing is true with our relationship to our Heavenly Father and God.  In fact, it'll work backwards on that list of fast friendship, in fact, if you look even more closely through the first 88-or-so sections of the Doctrine & Covenants, you'll see that there is a progression (not that it always is this progression...): servant, son, friend.  You can be any of those at any time, but it becomes harder to become friends if you are always at a big distance from each other.  In other words, once you are friends, you can simultaneously be any or every of the other types of relationships as well: Friend & Son, Friend & Servant, etc.  But, it is less likely that you can be a friend just because you're a son or a servant.  Again, though, once you are a friend, you can also be any of the other types of relationships (daughter = son, in the case that you are a woman or a girl).

In fact, I would posit that our relationship with our Heavenly Father becomes deeper and more sure as you become and remain together for longer periods of time--more scripture reading, more prayers, more time with your family learning together (all requiring the presence of the Holy Ghost [the third member of the Godhead] to become effective), more weeks in Sacrament Meeting, more time studying the Gospel, more time in the temple, more time spent with your spouse and family (and the more time spent with your spouse "established and maintained on principles of faith, prayer, repentance, forgiveness, respect, love, compassion, work, and wholesome recreational activities").

In other words, the closer you are to those you love, the closer you'll be--the more time you spend together doing the things that are intended to bring you closer together (and eventually make you one), the more time the Spirit is with you and the more united you will become, and the more you will become one.

Frequency

Proximity & Frequency = Fast Friends with God

JPS