Your Path

"Every saint has a past and every sinner has a future." - Oscar Wilde

One time in institute, our teacher asked us who we thought was better: someone who had sinned and repented or someone who had never sinned. A girl answered that the person who never sinned was better, and the teacher concurred.
This bothered me.
Don't we believe that the atonement is powerful enough to make us completely clean again?
It is definitely safer to stay on the straight and narrow. You protect yourself from the pain and sorrow that comes from sin. However, everyone steps off the path at some point. None of us are flawless. Some get back to the path quickly with only a splinter to heal from. Others must fight their way back through briers and vines. They will be hurt, but their wounds will heal. Their feet will become tough and calloused, their wounds will scab and scar. They will be stronger from the journey. Whoever makes the journey, however they make it, can be embraced by our Father.

We will be judged not by what we have done, but by who we've become. 

For so long I thought if I didn't beat myself up about everything I wasn't doing right, I wouldn't become any better. This is not true at all. It made me feel guilty and depressed. It made me feel like giving up.
I am good enough as I am right now.
I can be better because I want to, not because I'm not good enough.
My Father knows my heart.

I want to share this song with you. It makes me cry every time I listen to it.

Honey, don't jump the gun
There's a life worth living on
When the world comes crashing down
In God's arms you're safe and sound
Let the love of new life spread
In the light you'll walk 'til death
Then arise a forgiven soul
As Daddy says "Welcome home, job well done."
Oh, honey, don't jump the gun.