One Sunday, I looked around our chapel.
Everyone was taking the sacrament.
Everyone has gotten dressed up in their best clothes out of respect for the ordinance.
And I felt like a hot mess.
Trying to keep a baby from crying, trying not to let my kid flip the bread tray over (like he has before), trying to be at least kind of reverent.
Just trying.
But still a hot mess.
“Everyone else has it all together. Everyone else can handle their kids and keep them reverent. Everyone else is worshiping appropriately.”
Those words started to creep in my head.
But then guess what happened?
Over the next two hours, all the “perfect people” around me gave talks, led lessons, shared comments, chatted with me in the hallway…
Each person opening up about a sufficient trial they are going through.
I KNOW this, and yet I still forget!
Of COURSE the pews aren’t filled with perfect people who haven’t got a care in the world.
We are all a hot mess in one way or another.
Just because we smile or we wear nice clothes doesn’t mean our hearts are okay.
“The Lord seeth not as man seeth; for man looketh on the outward appearance, but the Lord looketh on the heart.” (1 Samuel 16:7)
The Lord knows the sins, the heartaches, the distractions, the loneliness, the overwhelm that fills each seat at church.
And I think this is how I want to become more Christlike.
I see the outward appearance, yes.
But I want to know the hearts around me, too.
I want to connect and mourn and love.
So that instead of sitting in the pew, wallowing in self-pity, I can learn to see and love as the Savior does.
Happy Studying!
-Cali Black
