I sat down in my Music 101 class at BYU. I honestly rarely missed classes in college, but I had skipped the 2 previous once-a-week classes.
Which wouldn’t be a big deal because I had studied music my whole life, and this class was extremely easy music theory.
The professor started the class by saying, “Alright, the test scores from your exam in the testing center last week were pretty good!”
My heart sank.
I hadn’t taken any test. I had missed one of three exams that my class grade would be based on.
At the end of the lecture class, I sheepishly walked up to his podium.
I took full responsibility for my mistake and asked him if there was anything I could do for even partial credit.
He looked at me and said, “My office hours are from 1-3 tomorrow afternoon. If you can be there, you can take the test in my office.”
I was so gracious and took the test in his office the following day.
When I checked my score online a few days later, I saw that I had received 100% on the exam.
I was go grateful for my professor’s GRACE in allowing me to take an exam after the testing period has closed, something that was completely my fault.
But I was also grateful for his JUSTICE in scoring the exam, where I was given full credit for every question that I got correct.
I noticed that in 2 Nephi Chapter 9, Jacob praises God for His “mercy and grace” (v8) AND says, “O the greatness and the justice of our God!” (v17)
We praise God for offering us His MERCY when we don’t do what we are supposed to, and feel full sorrow for it.
We praise God for offering us JUSTICE when we are actually doing our best, giving us credit for our intentional good deeds (or intentional bad deeds).
Both justice and mercy are the kindest things that our God can offer us, and only He is the perfect example of knowing when to extend each gift.
Happy Studying!
-Cali Black
