deny not the gifts

Moroni 10:8
And again, I exhort you, my brethren, that ye deny not the gifts of God, for they are many; and they come from the same God. And there are different ways that these gifts are administered; but it is the same God who worketh all in all; and they are given by the manifestation of the Spirit of God unto men, to profit them. 

Last Tuesday marked the end of our Book of Mormon Institute course and we went over Moroni 10 as our final lesson. Although many wonderful subjects were taught and discussed on this day, there was one subject which I felt the need to share with those in the classroom and which I would like to write about now. Here's my story:

Imagine you are about to take a very long journey to another part of the world which you have never before visited. You have a long time to prepare, so you spend your days packing, learning a new language, learning about the culture, possibly acclimating to that weather, and wondering just what it would be like to leave all you know behind and step into a whole new world. When the time comes to depart, you feel ready and enthusiastic about your new adventure because you have spent a long time preparing and you know you have brought the right things with you. You have learned as much as possible and packed all the necessities for a pleasant stay, and so when you step off that airplane and into this new country, you are ready to tackle anything that comes your way, and more importantly, to find joy in your journey.

Now lets apply this same theory to the grandest of schemes: the Plan of Salvation. Before coming to Earth we all lived as spiritual beings in the presence of God. Although we did not have a body, we had our intelligence, our ability to make decisions, and the opportunity to increase our intelligence. It was then that we learned and developed aptitudes, talents, capacities and abilities of every kind. During this very long Pre-existence, each one of our spirits developed an infinite variety of skills and no two spirits remained alike.

Have you ever wondered why we are all so different from each other? Each person has several things they are good at and several things they are terrible at. The reason for this is because every one of us came to earth endowed with those talents we chose to develop in the Pre-existence. And WHY did we choose to develop those particular talents? Because we were packing for this long journey! Just like in the story above about a traveler preparing to visit a new country, our spirits prepared themselves to come and live in this world. We studied and we learned and we brought with us those things which we thought would be most important to get us through life.

Maybe you were born an exceptionally great musician, or singer, or painter and find great joy in that form of art. Why do you think that is? It is because your spirit decided that if you were going to get through all the earthly woes of life, then you needed to have your art in order to help you cope.
Or maybe you are very good at forgiveness and the wrong things others do don't phase you so much. Why is this? It is because your spirit knew that you had to be good at forgiving in order to face the challenges of life on Earth, so it worked extra hard during the pre-mortal life to develop the gift of forgiving in order for it to be emphasized in this life.

This list can go on eternally because we all have eternally different characteristics, but I want to add one thing: I keep repeating myself about how our talents help us "cope" or "endure" this life... but that's not all. Our talents also help us make this greatest of journeys the most enjoyable it can be. I know that each one of us has been brought down to Earth at exactly the right time and in exactly the right place. The Lord gave us each the intelligence we needed to develop our talents, and he put every one of us in the correct place for those talents to be developed even further. My spirit chose to emphasize certain attributes as tools in order to help me fulfill the purpose of my creation, and I am proud and grateful that I have been allotted that which I have. There is no greatest success than being ourselves, our truest, best selves, in order to answer the call which The Lord has extended.

I have received a strong personal revelation that all of the above is true, and I could not know it any better now than if I were to watch a re-play of the pre-mortal life and the creating of the Plan of Salvation. I know we all developed our gifts long before we came to this stage in the plan, and it is by applying them that we can fulfill the purpose for which we came. I believe in Jesus Christ and in a Heavenly Father who carefully watches over us and cares for me so much that he chose me to be exactly where I need to be. I believe in the Atonement of Jesus Christ, and that no one may go to the Father but through Him and His redeeming sacrifice for mankind. I believe in the great and marvelous beauty of the Plan of Happiness, and I believed that I stood firmly behind it because I, too, wished to live in the presence of Heavenly Father again. I know that this great goal is made achievable by the grace of The Lord, and that through obedience to commandments and righteously keeping covenants we can all live eternally in the Celestial Kingdom.