Pain Medicine

I was thinking about how grateful I am that I live in a time when we have good doctors, medical tests and procedures that can save lives, and that I live in a country where I have access to good medical care. While I was reading Abinidi's words, it occurred to me that I am also lucky to live in a time when we understand so much about the Lord's prescription for spiritual pain.

I have always struggled with forgiveness, and specifically how to forgive people who either don't believe they need forgiveness, or who feel that I shouldn't be hurt by things they have done. I have realized that I still have to learn how to forgive them, even if they don't want to be forgiven, or don't see the need for me to forgive them. How to do that is not easy, and I am not sure I have it figured out yet, but I am grateful to know that it is possible.

I think that the greatest part of the atonement, which is also the hardest for me to understand on an emotional level, is that Christ can heal all of our emotional wounds, and take the pain away. When Alma and Amulek where forced to watch the believers and their families being burned, he knew that they would be received into heaven, but I am sure that there was great emotional pain that could have come from being forced to watch those events, if they hadn't had the knowledge of the gospel and the healing that comes from the atonement.

While many of the events in my life have been emotionally painful, I know that I have access to the same promises that Alma, Amulek and Abinidi had. I know that Christ has written the prescription, and it is only up to me to fill it, and partake of its healing. I know that to fill the prescription I must be willing to give away all my sins, and offer a broken heart and contrite spirit as payment.