More fully

My first year teaching sixth grade, I felt like I was drowning.

I was working so hard to just do the bare minimum that was required of me.

By my second year, I felt like I could handle the basics better.

And so I started figuring out how to be an even better, kinder, more involved, and more effective teacher.

It’s not like I was a bad teacher my first year. I was good. My students liked me, their test scores were good…

But I improved SO much each year that I taught.

And by the time I quit my job, I was an awesome teacher. But, I still could have been even better and certainly would have improved more.

The phrase that the Lord uses in the beginning of D&C 59:9 has always been powerful to me:

“That thou mayest MORE FULLY keep thyself unspotted from the world…”

It’s not a yes or no thing.

Just like it wasn’t “good teacher” vs. “bad teacher”, this isn’t a cut and dry “totally unspotted” vs. “spotted”.

It’s a spectrum of cleanliness.

And the Lord is saying:

Hey, do you want to move the needle on the spectrum even closer to ‘purity’? Do you want to become even more clean?

Do you want to rid yourself from all the worldly grime that’s darkening your spirit?

Then try keeping the Sabbath day holy even better.

Is not like you’ll do it “right” or “wrong”— I just know that you can do it even better than what you’ve been doing.

And it’s going to add cleanliness to your life if you choose to do it.

What a cool message, right?!

We are constantly invited to do just a little better. Not that we were necessarily doing it “wrong” before, but more that He knows the blessings and extra peace that await us when we move the dial on that purity spectrum just a little bit more.

Whether it’s Sabbath day observance, or a different commandment that you are feeling pulled toward focusing on right now—

I love that we can always find ways to become just a little bit more unspotted.

Happy Studying!

-Cali Black