Nobel and Great

I feel like in the last 5 days I've learned a whole month's worth of spiritual lessons. I'd like to share one with anyone who happens to read this silly little blog of mine...

I went to institute on thursday, and we were studying part of Abraham. Now most of you all probably know the scripture Abraham 3:22...it's scripture mastery, but I'd like to stick it in here anyways. It says:

"Now the Lord had shown unto me, Abraham, the intelligences that were organized before the world was; and among all these there were many of the noble and great ones. And God saw these souls that they were good, and he stood in the midst of them, and he said: These I will make my rulers; for he stood among those that were spirits, and he saw that they were good; and he said unto me: Abraham, thou art one of them; thou wast chosen before thou wast born."

I think most of us have been told multiple times that this scripture applies to us just as much as it did to Abraham. Because we are of the House of Israel, (which is a HUGE deal... by the way) and because we were born in this time and place we know that we were valiant spirits. Secretly I've always kind of wondered if I managed to slip in by mistake. Maybe I was visiting a 'nobel and great one' when the Savior came to call them and I just went along with it... sometimes I'm so weak it's hard to believe that I was one of them. As I sat in institute though, and we talked about it, this wonderful warm feeling came over me, and I nearly started to cry, because I KNEW that I was among those spirits.

My wonderful teacher, Brother Dymock, told us that the thing that seperated the 'Nobel and Great Spirits' from the others was simply what they wanted. Not all Spirits wanted to become like our Heavenly Father and Mother, but those who did, those who wanted it more than anything else... they were the ones that God came and spoke to in this scripture. I can know I was one of them, because I want more than anything, anything in the whole world, to become like my Heavenly Father, and I want to be with my family forever.

I've always kind of left the scripture right there when I've read it before. But I realized thursday that the verses that come right after it are just as important. They say:

"And there stood one among them that was like unto God, and he said unto those who were with him: We will go down, for there is space there, and we will take of these materials, and we ill make an earth whereon these may dwell; And we will prove them herewith, to see if they will do all things whatsoever the Lord their God shall command them."

Christ came and talked to us! (Who else would be "like unto God"?) And he invited us to help him make the earth... we helped make it! And then he said, "We will prove them..."

He didn't say... "And God will prove them"
Or... "And I will prove them"
Or... "And you all will be proven"

He said... "We will prove them."

Now I don't profess to know exactly what this means... but I have a few guesses. And there is one thing that I know about it. It means that the reason I am here right now, is because I need to help my brothers and sisters prove themselves. As I help them, I continue prove myself. It's made me feel a lot more responsible to help those around me. It's made me want to be so much better than I am. And it's given me the courage and motivation to try harder to be better the past few days.

Isn't the Gospel of Jesus Christ wonderful?