As some of you know, I have been participating in a "drawing challenge" on Facebook, wherein I am given a topic to draw every day for 30 days. It has been hard! Not only is it hard to draw the actual pictures, but it's difficult to decide what to draw too. The other day the topic was "inspiration". First off, I didn't know if that meant to draw something by inspiration, or to draw the thing that inspires me! It's incredibly non-specific. So I chose the latter choice, and then came the task of discovering what inspires me. I was texting a friend, and she told me to find out what makes things meaningful to me, and the answer came immediately. I was in a car at the time, and I looked around and realized that nothing I was seeing really meant anything to me. Money, work, school, it's all temporal. The only thing in the car that meant anything to me was my dad who was driving, my mom in the passenger seat, and my brother in the seat next to me. Then I thought to my future. I know I will go through my share of trials as we all must, but even the trials are meaningless when compared to the blessings of having an eternal family of my own. I am willing to go through years of school and an entire life of work to support my family because they are the way to true happiness and exaltation! Thinking about this made me remember the perfection of the Plan of Salvation, and in turn, the love Heavenly Father has for us.
When we learn about the Plan of Salvation we learn so much about where we came from and where we are going that it is easy to forget that we are living it right now, and that the things we do here are essential to it. Over the past year or so my eyes have really been opened as I have reached the age where I am making decisions that will affect me forever. Some that come to mind are receiving the Melchizedek Priesthood and going to the Temple to receive my endowments. It really makes me realize that within the next 3-5 years I could be making one of the biggest decisions of my existence, and that is to get married in the Temple! We always say that Heavenly Father sent us here to get bodies, but I'm pretty sure finding an eternal companion was #2 on His list!
So when I drew the Plan of Salvation for the the drawing challenge I kept it really simple, and that was on purpose (really, it wasn't laziness). It's a reminder to myself that the Plan of Salvation
is simple. The "endure to the end" is to remind me that the path back to our Father is as straightforward as accepting the gospel, repenting, being baptized, and enduring to the end. Basically we just need to be like Jesus! Heavenly Father created the plan because He loves us, and He wants us to do what He asks and return to Him more than anything!
