When I joined the Church during my freshman year of college, I felt good about the changes I was making to my lifestyle and saw how much better the gospel made my life. However, I soon felt that my past was hindering any progress I could make. How could Heavenly Father use me to help build His kingdom when I had made such poor choices?
Then one day I opened my Book of Mormon to the very last page. I read Moroni's parting words: "Yea, come unto Christ, and be perfected in him, … and if ye shall deny yourselves of all ungodliness, and love God with all your might, mind and strength, then is his grace sufficient for you, that by his grace ye may be perfect in Christ; and if by the grace of God ye are perfect in Christ, ye can in nowise deny the power of God" (Moroni 10:32). I stared at those words. I felt the Spirit tell me they were true. I realized that I had been limiting the power of God by assuming He could not use me in any way He saw fit.
I decided that from then on I would not "deny the power of God" but would accept my past and look forward to my future. The more I focused on my future instead of my past and trusted in the sanctifying grace of Jesus Christ, the more I felt my Savior's love for me and the happier I was with myself.
Christy Pettey, Washington, USA
1.See 3 Nephi 5:20–22.
2.See Mormon 8:13–41.
3.See 3 Nephi 15:11–24.
4.See 18–20.
5.Compare 1 John 3:1–3.