Any pain entailed in repentance will always be far less than the suffering required to satisfy justice for unresolved transgression.
D. Todd ChristoffersonRead
As days lengthen into weeks and months and even years of adversity, the hurt grows deeper. The Church cannot hope to save a man on Sunday if during the week it is a complacent witness to the crucifixion of his soul.
Interpretation
The quote emphasizes the importance of continuous support and action in the face of adversity rather than superficial weekly observance.
D. Todd Christofferson's quote reflects on the prolonged nature of adversity and the deepening wounds it causes in a person's soul. He argues that merely attending church on Sundays is not sufficient to aid individuals suffering throughout the week; instead, the church must actively engage in compassionate witness and support to truly heal and save souls from their ongoing struggles.
In practice
In a discussion about community support during difficult times.
Any pain entailed in repentance will always be far less than the suffering required to satisfy justice for unresolved transgression.
Repentance is a divine gift, and there should be a smile on our faces when we speak of it. It points us to freedom, confidence, and peace. Rather than interrupting the celebration, the gift of repentance is the cause for true celebration.
Hard-earned achievement brings a sense of self-worth. Work builds and refines character, creates beauty, and is the instrument of our service to one another and to God. A consecrated life is filled with work, sometimes repetitive, sometimes menial, sometimes unappreciated but always work that improves, orders, sustains, lifts, ministers, aspires.
Integrity is fundamental to being men. Integrity means being truthful, but it also means accepting responsibility and honoring commitments and covenants.
By "moral discipline," I mean self-discipline based on moral standards. Moral discipline is the consistent exercise of agency to choose the right because it is right, even when it is hard. It rejects the self-absorbed life in favor of developing character worthy of respect and true greatness through Christlike service.
We must be careful, as we seek to become more and more [Christlike], that we do not become discouraged and lose hope. Becoming Christlike is a lifetime pursuit and very often involves growth and change that is slow, almost imperceptible.
No 'we' should be taken for granted when the subject is looking at other people's pain.
The most virtuous are those who content themselves with being virtuous without seeking to appear so.
Tradition does not mean a dead town; it does not mean that the living are dead but that the dead are alive. It means that it still matters what Penn did two hundred years ago or what Franklin did a hundred years ago; I never could feel in New York that it mattered what anybody did an hour ago.
I thought I was growing wings— it was a cocoon. I thought, now is the time to step into the fire— it was deep water. Eschatology is a word I learned as a child: the study of Last Things; facing my mirror—no longer young, the news—always of death, the dogs—rising from sleep and clamoring and howling, howling.... ("Seeing For a Moment")
And that's why people read comics, to get away from the way life works, which is quite cruel and unheroic and ends in death.
Though all afflictions are evils in themselves, yet they are good for us, because they discover to us our disease and tend to our cure.
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