When I was 15 years old, I felt the cleansing power of the atonement in my life probably for the first time. While I was on a French student exchange trip in Longueuil, Quebec, a large group of us decided to go to the movie and met at the underground metro. The French students all had annual passes to get through all of the metro gates, but we Albertans did not. There were only certain places we could go to buy tickets and get through. A few of the French students told us just to duck under the gate and not to worry about paying. Obviously I knew this was wrong without question, but I caved in to peer pressure and under I went...Fortunately in terms of a lesson, we got caught by an undercover police officer and taken into their underground headquarters. It was a humiliating and yucky moment in my life. They didn't end up charging us since we didn't speak French very well, but I felt so guilty for doing something that I knew was wrong and for not setting a better example for my friends. It was a feeling that wouldn't go away. When I returned to Alberta, I decided to go talk to my bishop about what I had done. He asked me if I knew how to tell if I had been forgiven, and when I told him I didn't, he opened his scriptures to Doctrine and Covenants 58:42-43, "Behold, he who has repented of his sins, the same is forgiven, and I, the Lord, remember them no more. By this ye may know if a man repenteth of his sins - behold, he will confess them and forsake them."
As he said those words, I felt a most touching and beautiful spiritual cleansing. I felt the burden of guilt lifted, I felt light and happy again, and like a bucket of warm water had been poured over me and washed all of the evil away. Since then, some things that I have worked through with the atonement have taken hours, days, months, and sometimes years to work through, probably due to my lack of faith; however, once in a while I have another one of those moments when I feel the Lord's atoning love wash over me and instantly remove the burden I have been struggling with. It is a poignant reminder of that first time when I had felt His cleansing love and power. Tonight I just need to say how grateful I am for Christ's atonement, the greatest of all gifts I have ever been given.
What does the atonement mean to you? Any wisdom for me and my lesson? Sweet dreams and thanks to all of you who take the time to visit us here :)
