Saturday, June 6, 2009

Attracting Faith


Do you remember the first time you encountered the magic of magnetic forces? I do. I remember the first magnets I played with and how they repulsed each other or snapped on to one another. My dad put one magnet on top of the table and the other underneath making the one on top waltz magically across the table. Later I remember a toy that had metal filings on the face of a man and a magnet underneath moved the filings to make a beard or hair on his head. These magnetic forces that couldn’t be seen but that were so manifestly obvious seemed magical.

As I’ve grown older I’ve come to realize there are many forces like magnetic fields that are present in our world but unseen. Faith is one of those forces. It can be just as obvious even though it isn’t seen, and just as with magnetism it has an opposing pole—faith draws us closer to God and fear and doubt push us away from God. The Savior performed the Atonement which broke the barriers and allows us to be drawn to Him. Our responsibility in the relationship with Christ is to choose the attracting force, faith, and avoid the rebelling force, fear and doubt.

The Truth Tools that we have been talking about are nothing more than strategies or tools to help us tap into the positive force of faith that draws us close to Jesus Christ. The default force in life is the negative force and if we aren’t actively seeking the positive force, we will find ourselves being pulled away from God. Learning to avoid the negative forces that push us away from Christ and aligning ourselves with the positive forces that like the magnetic field actually draw us to Christ, is one of the greatest things we can do in life.

2 comments:

Jenny said...

I taught a Sharing Time today where we used the Shield of Faith to protect us from the fiery darts of the adversary. It was fun imagery to use with the kids, but it also helped me to see how Faith really can act as a shield to protect me from the harmful thoughts and actions that Satan might tempt me to have.

Sherrie Mills Johnson said...

Jenny,It is so true. We need all the armor we can get! I hope all is going well with you!