Musings

So I was pondering a friend's recent blog post, which posed questions about the nature of man, inquiring regarding what distinguishes a good person from a bad person and to what extent bad choices makes a "bad" person. And, since I like to ponder deep, unanswerable questions, I spent several hours musing about it rather than going in to work at a decent hour. I still anticipate going into work at some indecent hour and putting in at least a few hours today. Anyway, I ended up with about 5 single-spaced pages of ponderings and lots more questions, and I quite enjoyed the process. And, I figured that I'd post a paragraph or two (or four) on one of the thoughts that surfaced.

My thoughts drifted back to that hour I spent volunteering in prison last week. Someone mentioned a motto that the women in the ward there had for themselves. If I recall correctly, the motto was this: "We are not what we have done". I love that. And I believe it. One of the greatest things I have learned is that people are people, not the personification of their problems. This is a perspective of hope.

I would assume, that for those women to have been where they were, that they made some horrible choices. Justice consigned them to their current situation. But that did not change their nature or their worth. Granted, I don't doubt that a perpetuation of negative choices combined with an exclusion of hope and a barring of goodness potentially could corrupt their natures, but I do not believe that their progress has been damned or that their divine nature has been diminished. And those women were impressive. The spirit was with them. I could tell that they understood the power of prayer, baptism and the atonement in ways that are beyond me. And one of the RS presidency members told me about how unbelievable the Spirit is at testimony meetings there.

The atonement of Christ is there so that people can change. It exists because Heavenly Father knew that we would make bad choices. There is evil inherent in the flesh. But even though the flesh is weak and naturally inclines us toward sin, our spirits are divine and innately good. I figure that if we want to choose good and follow the spirit more than we want to succumb to the flesh, that that is a good sign. And if, when we do fall prey to those thorns in the flesh and baser enticements, that if we regret it and want to change and work to do so, that that reflects the goodness in us. Further, I believe that anyone who works toward and meets the requirements for true repentance is a good person, regardless of what they are repenting of. And through the atonement of Christ, they become as though they never made those mistakes in the first place.

Simply stated, I believe in the goodness of people. I believe that there is always reason to hope. I believe that great people are those who seek to do good and be better, and who act on the light and knowledge they possess, to whatever extent they might have it. I think of myself and others as works-in-progress. If I defined myself by my mistakes and weaknesses and didn't have hope that I could overcome them, life would be dark and dismal and I'd be an unhappy gargoyle.