Atonement

I've been studying the importance of the Atonement and how to apply it in my life. Understanding the Atonement has helped me deal with my everyday teenage challenges. I just finished reading a book called " Believing in Christ" That made me more fully comprehend the significance and greatness of the Atonement. In order to use the Atonement in our life, I learned we must have faith in Christ and faith that Christ can heal you. Everybody makes mistakes, and it gives me relief to know that I can repent. Don't get discouraged if you can't change right away. Repentance is a process. Repentance involves changing and becoming like Christ. Repentance starts with a desire to be like Christ and a desire not to sin again. Repentance means putting our trust in Christ. I'm glad that the atonement doesn't require being perfect, but doing our best. This reminds me of a story of a little girl, who was trying to buy a bicycle. Her dad told her to save all of her money and she'll be able to buy a bike. She saved all her money, but still wasn't able to buy the back. Her father paid for the rest of it. That's how the atonement works. Christ doesn't care if we earned one dollar or two. Christ cares more about if we're trying our best and giving our best effort. In the book I read, it related the atonement to a physical trainer. Every time we do a push up the trainer asks us to do another push up, until we can't do any more. The trainer doesn't get mad at us when we can't do another push up he just wanted to push us to our fullest capacities. It's the same way with the atonement.  Don't get discouraged when you make a mistake after trying your best. Jesus just tries to get us to use our full capacities and to get us to our full potential. Many times we don't see our full potential. I'm glad that Christ loves us so much that he went through all of our pains, sins, and sufferings.  Christ worked so hard for us, so now it's our job to use the gift Christ gave us. I know that I feel bad when people don't care about the gift that I gave them. The more we sin and the longer we sin, the more consequences. I like to compare sinning to putting ourselves in a box. The more we sin and longer we sin the more tape that is put around the box to keep it closed. Sin leads people trapped, in bondage, and miserable. We can still repent, but we must deal with the consequences of our actions. Repentance causes are very nature to change. We developed Christ- like attributes and happier. When we repent we become self less and seek for ways we can help us. Our desires change through repentance. It is only through Christ's grace and mercy that we are saved. We all are given time to repent, but we'll be sorry if we don't. (Alma 34:32-34) Remember perfect really means completion. Through Christ we are complete. I know the atonement can really help me in my life , as well as you. Christ's yoke is easy. By easy it doesn't mean his yoke isn't hard , but totally in our hands. I encourage you all the gain a testimony of the atonement and apply it in your lives. The atonement can really shape your lives for the better. At least I have.