Blessings Understood

I am actually posting a second time. (Lonna speaking) So I guess this blog's for real now. I haven't been sure exactly what kinds of things to post--whether I should post only what others want to read or what really moves me inside. So I've decided today to blog about something that touched me deeply.

A couple of weeks ago we were invited to a RE-baptism. A friend of ours committed a serious crime, lost her membership in the Church and has spent the past seven years in prison. She has been diligently working towards being baptized again into the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints and her day finally arrived.

I have been to many, many baptisms, beginning with my own when I joined the Church. I thrilled at the baptisms I witnessed in the mission field in Argentina. I have enjoyed the baptisms of little children in Primary when they have turned eight years old. And I have been touched by convert baptisms of adults who have searched and found the truth.

Yet, never have I felt the meaning and significance of this ordinance as I did when our friend was baptized for the second time. We talk about taking things for granted. I guess I have. I think about my baptism and my great blessings when I take the Sacrament on Sundays. I ponder the Atonement and the meaning of repentance and forgiveness as well. The covenants I made with the Lord at baptism are very important to me.

This special meeting for our friend brought these teachings and this sacred ordinance into a perspective that sank deep within my soul. I have always (since my baptism) enjoyed the Priesthood blessings in my life. I have always been able to partake of the Sacrament. Our friend has been denied these blessings for seven years. She knows what it is like to be without them, especially after having had them all her life. She knows a kind of repentance that I have not experienced. She has endured years of the absence of the Holy Ghost in her daily life. She has experienced a true "contrite heart" and diligence in working towards the reinstatement of these blessings.

As she went down into the waters of baptism for the second time in her life, and her son helped her into the baptismal font, she broke into tears and actually sobbed with happiness. I, too, began to cry, as did most of the audience of close to 100 people. The Kleenex box was quickly passed through the room. The depth of her joy and gratitude was apparent and touched each of us. The Spirit of the Lord witnessed to me that she was clean and that the Atonement is real.

It quickly dawned on me (something that, of course, I already knew!) that if the Lord would forgive her for such a grievous error, then the Atonement can be real in my life and I really can be forgiven for my sins. God really does love us, He really loves me. My baptism so many years ago became supremely significant to me at that moment. My testimony has been cemented in a new manner and my baptismal covenants have taken on more depth of meaning in my life.

I now have more understanding and gratitude for my blessings.