Embarrassing story: During one of my yearly Bishop’s interviews as a teenager, my Bishop asked how I was doing with various gospel habits.
I was a good kid, and I told him honestly that I read my scriptures and prayed every day, was obedient to my parents, kind to my siblings, went to all my church meetings…
He told me how awesome all of that was.
And then he asked me, “So what are you working on improving right now for how you live the gospel?”
I literally froze. I was doing everything right, right?!
So I responded, “Uh, I don’t know.”
I remember he smiled so kindly at me and said, “Well maybe you can work on trying to answer that question next.”
This has always made me cringe/laugh in embarrassment now that I look back at it.
In my developing mind, checking all the gospel “boxes” meant that there wasn’t anything left for me to improve! And I can promise you I actually had plenty of things to improve.
I can’t even imagine feeling that way anymore – I’ve got a long list of things I need to work on and change, and I am VERY well aware of it!
I don’t think that are many of us who really feel “at ease” in Zion.
But we have to make sure the pendulum doesn’t swing too far the other way from “overly-confident teen” to “never-good-enough adult”.
Nephi isn’t saying, “Wo unto those who feel happy or comfortable in Zion at all!”
We are a part of Zion. Can we acknowledge what we are doing right? AND have our list of qualities we want to improve? Can both of these exist at the same time?
I think so. And I think it is a balancing act that takes a lot of work to get just right.
We can go to a temple recommend interview and respond with confidence. AND we can fully recognize the things we still need to improve.
We can belong in Zion and be happy, but always look for ways to be a little bit better.
Happy Studying!
-Cali Black
