How to walk into a room and not worry about who you are going to sit by— just sitting down and knowing you’ll be fine no matter what.

How to make decisions and feel confident about them.

How to plan events and host.

And it’s not like these things aren’t important…

Being confident has blessed my life in many ways.

But I’ve recently been starting to get a glimpse of something much more important.

Love and service.

Walking into a room and looking for someone I could sit next to who might need a friend.

Not always making the most efficient decisions because they would leave some people out.

Hosting in a way that I’m still able to connect with others, and not in self-serving ways.

With this idea sitting in my mind a lot recently, I couldn’t help but see a new perspective to this pretty popular verse:

“For their salvation is necessary and essential to our salvation, as Paul says concerning the fathers—that they without us cannot be made perfect—neither can we without our dead be made perfect.” D&C 128:15

Why can’t we be perfect without performing proxy ordinances for every single person who has ever existed?

Because that is the loving and compassionate thing to do.

It isn’t enough to just be righteous and confident people who keep to ourselves.

It isn’t enough to just worry about ourselves.

Why?

Because Jesus isn’t just worried about Himself.

So if we are asked to become like Jesus…

Then we can’t just worry about “our own salvation”.

Because “our own salvation” requires us to become Christlike.

Which means we are filled with so much compassion and love that we HAVE to, no, we WANT to do the work for absolutely everyone else.

We would never be content with just our own perfection.

Because Christ isn’t content just with His.

Happy Studying!

-Cali Black

The post Self-confidence and perfection first appeared on Come Follow Me Study with Cali Black.

The idea that He is an understanding and compassionate God…

And the idea that He is a God of order and eternal laws.

I’ve seen this tension in my life a lot.

And two pretty dramatic instances of this jumped out to me in this week’s reading.

First, we have the Lord talking about baptisms for the dead.

The saints had heard Joseph preach about this idea, and immediately went to the river to get started!

The Lord shows these two tensions of understanding but still following eternal principles here:

“I grant unto you a sufficient time to build a house unto me; and during this time your baptisms shall be acceptable unto me.

“But behold, at the end of this appointment your baptisms for your dead shall not be acceptable unto me”. D&C 124:31-32

Can you see both sides of God there?

An understanding of the saints condition: without a dedicated temple, and with a strong desire to perform proxy baptisms.

He didn’t tell them they weren’t allowed to do them anymore, or that none of them counted.

But then we also see the rule: the absolute minute a temple baptismal font is dedicated, they have to be done there.

Fascinating, right?!

Okay but just a few verses later, we get ANOTHER example of this tension!

In D&C 124:49, the Lord tells the saints that He is going to revoke His earlier commandment to build a temple in Far West, because wicked men had prevented it.… and then He commands them to build a temple in Nauvoo right away.

He didn’t make them stick to this previous commandment, and promise the saints that they would be protected while they went back to finish the Far West temple.

He saw that it was no longer reasonable, but then immediately commanded them to get to work on a Nauvoo temple, with no excuse for weariness or financial distress.

I see both sides in God.

I know there are eternal laws, commandments, and principles to follow.

And I know that He perfectly understands my personal situation.

But I don’t ever want to use His compassion as permissiveness.

And I sincerely pray that I will never misinterpret that balance.

Happy Studying!

-Cali Black

The post God’s balance first appeared on Come Follow Me Study with Cali Black.