the Sacrament and Book of Mormon class

so i have 2 little stories to share. actually one story is not so little. but this sunday i had a really awesome experience. i hadn't taken the Sacrament in 2 weeks, because the first week i accidentally slept through all my alarms, so i showed up to church about 20 minutes late, and the second time i went to a family party, and because my ward is so late i had to skip church. i had been having a rough last few days/weeks and i just didn't know why. then this sunday, i took the Sacrament, and i felt the spirit testify to me soooo stongly that when we partake of it worthily, it truly does give us so much strength and the spirit is with us making everyday decisions and trials 1000 times easier. then after that, the whole sacrament meeting was emotional for me. hahah im a really emotional person and i think my tear ducts are connected with the spirit becasue i was crying probably 50 percent of that whole sacrament meeting. it was something i really needed, and i love this gospel so much and i truly have a testimony that Christ atoned for our sins so that we could live with God again and have eternal life. i dont know how miserable i would be without the knowledge of the atonement and Christs deep love for me.

so now on to todays book of Mormon class story. so, i seriously love my BOM class. i feel like i learn alot, and much more about the doctrine and the things we are supposed to gain from the book, rather than the history and stuff. so today he shared a story, which im pretty sure i have heard before, but it never hit me with such force. i just feel like the last weeks i have been so inadiquate and no matter how hard i try, i can never make it. so this story came into my life at a perfect moment :] as he was reading it, the Holy Ghost truly testifeid to me that this is true. read it all, i hope you love it as much as i do :]
As my wife and I talked about her feeling of inadequacy and her feeling that she couldn't do it and that she couldn't make it, I had a hard time reaching her until finally I hit upon something that had happened in our family just a couple of months earlier. In our home it is now called the parable of the bicycle.

"After I had come home from school one day, I was sitting in a chair reading the newspaper. My daughter Sarah, who was seven years old, came in and said, "Dad, can I have a bike? I'm the only kid on the block who doesn't have a bike."

Well, I didn't have enough money to buy her a bike, so I stalled her and said, "Sure, Sarah."

She said, "How? When?"

I said, "You save all your pennies, and pretty soon you'll have enough for a bike." And she went away.

A couple of weeks later as I was sitting in the same chair, I was aware of Sarah doing something for her mother and getting paid. She went into the other room and I heard "clink, clink." I asked, "Sarah, what are you doing?"

She came out and she had a little jar all cleaned up with a slit cut in the lid and a bunch of pennies in the bottom. She looked at me and said, "You promised me that if I saved all my pennies, pretty soon I'd have enough for a bike. And, Daddy, I've saved every single one of them."

She's my daughter, and I love her. My heart melted. She was doing everything in her power to follow my instructions. I hadn't actually lied to her. If she saved all of her pennies she would eventually have enough for a bike, but by then she would want a car. But her needs weren't being met. Because I love her, I said, "Let's go downtown and look at bikes."

We went to every store in Williamsport, Pennsylvania. Finally we found it--the perfect bicycle, the one she knew in the premortal existence. She got up on that bike; she was thrilled. She then saw the price tag, reached down, and turned it over. When she saw how much it cost, her face fell and she started to cry. She said, "Oh Dad, I'll never have enough for a bicycle."

So I said, "Sarah, how much do you have?"

She answered, "Sixty-one cents."

"I'll tell you what. You give me everything you've got and a hug and a kiss, and the bike is yours." Well, she's never been stupid. She gave me a hug and a kiss. She gave me the sixty-one cents. Then I had to drive home very slowly because she wouldn't get off the bike. She rode home on the sidewalk, and as I drove along slowly beside her it occurred to me that this was a parable for the Atonement of Christ.

We all want something desperately--it isn't a bicycle. We want the celestial kingdom. We want to be with our Father in Heaven. And no matter how hard we try, we come up short. At some point we realize, "I can't do this!" That was the point my wife had reached. It is at that point that the sweetness of the gospel covenant comes to our taste as the Savior proposes, "I'll tell you what. All right, you're not perfect. How much do you have? What can you do? Where are you now? Give me all you've got, and I'll pay the rest. Give me a hug and a kiss; enter into a personal relationship with me, and I will do what remains undone."

There is good news and bad news here. The bad news is that he still requires our best effort. We must try, we must work--we must do all that we can. But the good news is that having done all we can, it is enough--for now. Together we'll make progress in the eternities, and eventually we will become perfect--but in the meantime, we are perfect only in a partnership, in a covenant relationship with him. Only by tapping his perfection can we hope to qualify.

When I explained to Janet how it worked, finally I broke through and she understood. She bloomed. I remember her saying through her tears, "I've always believed he is the Son of God. I have always believed that he suffered and died for me. But now I know that he can save me from myself, from my sins, from my weakness, inadequacy, and lack of talent."

Oh, brothers and sisters, how many of us forget the words of 2 Nephi 2:8:

There is no flesh that can dwell in the presence of God, save it be through the merits, and mercy, and grace of the Holy Messiah."