Pre-mortal Faith

September 20, 2010

Today we talked about the pre-mortal life. Wow. I had an “Ah-ha!” moment and it rocked my mind. Brother Line talked about our doings as spirits, which, of course, I’ve known about my whole life. However, he pointed out something that I’ve never thought through before. So, as spirits we could make choices, and we sometimes made wrong choices, which means that as spirits we sinned. Right. That makes sense. But when we were born we were innocent, we had no sin. How does this happen? In Alma 13:3 it is called the “preparatory redemption.” We know that the Atonement is infinite, it covers the present, future and the past, so it covered our mistakes in the pre-mortal life as well. So why is it important to know this? Because we’ve already taken part of the Atonement. Before we were even born we had faith in our Savior that He could perform the soul-saving act that would cleanse us from sin and enable us to return to our Father. We see the effects of the Atonement whenever we look at a clean, fresh soul on earth. Babies and children demonstrate the power of the Atonement in their innocence; they prove the Savior’s sacrifice is real and effective. Whenever we doubt that we can be made clean or that our faith will allow us to fully participate in the process of repentance we should remember that we can do it, because we have done it before. There is nothing beyond the reach of our Savior, his love reached across mortality to purify us even before we began our mortal journey. The Atonement’s power is real, our Savior defeated sin and death with His great love for us. Why does this mean so much to me? I think I realized something about my faith when I learned this concept. I know my faith has grown throughout the years, but to think that back in my pre-mortal life, before we had even left for our journey, I had faith that Christ would be able to perform such a supreme act of love and endurance for me leaves me breathless. I have the scriptures to teach me of Christ’s life, miracles and Atonement, but I once had complete faith that He would save me, even before He left to do so. Not that I am a wonderful person, but it reveals a little more about my relationship with my Savior that I didn’t know about before, and that is precious to me.