What I learned in primary today:

We taught a six and seven year-old Sunday school class today about the atonement. Part of the lesson is about Alma's repentance, and the lesson brings up a point that I never really thought about before. It says that Alma was forgiven because the savior would later atone for his sins. I started thinking that it would require a whole different kind of faith to take advantage of an atonement that was still yet to happen. We have very powerful and dramatic stories and images to fix on as we ponder and apply the atonement, that might make it easier to understand and accept.

Not to oversimplify, but I tend to think of the atonement in two parts, repenting of our sins, and healing our hearts. When we sin, I think that we experience, even if only "in the least degree" the consequences of our sins, so we have a reference as to what the savior...in any time... would have had to suffer for us, however I think that the healing applications of the atonement would be more difficult to accept.

Think of the ammonites' agony as they think on the murders they committed. How hard would it be to forgive yourself of sins for which you cannot make amends. How would you console yourself with only the assurance that someday, someone, somehow could make that right.

Imagine the angst of a parent who lost a child. It would be so hard to think that anyone could understand their suffering, let alone offer any healing.

The image of God suffering so greatly, that even with an angel at His side He still sweat great drops of blood... when we learn of the brutality of Christ's last few hours on earth and are taught that the physical pain He endured was insignificant compared to His spiritual suffering, I think we obtain that reference and our minds can accept that He has suffered enough that He does have the tools to heal our wounds, to comfort our souls.

Before Christ came the faithful did not have that. I wonder if they didn't have much purer faith than I have, and a much stronger relationship with their Savior. I think at least I am guilty of losing sight of the gratitude I should have that we are living in the fullness of times. I always associated that with priesthoods and ordinances, but I forget what a gift it is to have a fullness of scripture, of knowledge and what a rich legacy we have from millennia of prophets.