By Andrea Lauritzen

One beginning not likely to grace New Year’s Resolution Lists is the opportunity to start fresh through the grace of the Atonement. As human and fallible beings we will make our own unique set of “mistakes.” Yet, maybe these so-called “mistakes” aren’t mistakes at all.

God knows our strengths and weaknesses perfectly, and has given us opportunities to learn exactly what we need to learn. Maybe these mistakes are really just chances for growth, understanding, and compassion — qualities we can gain if we choose.

The Savior, in his infinite Atonement, suffered all the sins, pains, and “mistakes” of the world, individually. He suffered for you, for me, for the homeless person on the street, and the murderer on Death Row. He loves us all. He understands us all. He has felt our pain, hurt, and disease as we, uniquely, have felt them.

I may experience the same trauma as you, but I feel it differently. My perception is unique to me alone because of who I am and what I bring to the experience. Yet, Jesus Christ knows how I personally have experienced the pain and how it has influenced my life. No one else can do that.

Perhaps it is through the suffering we experience that we gain a sense of compassion and understanding gained in no other way. This kind of understanding bonds us to one another, and to God. It helps us learn to love the way God loves – unconditionally.

The Atonement means “At One With.” The Savior, by giving a gift He alone can give, has already done his part. Will we accept His bounteous gift? Will we strive to be “at one with” the Savior? It is only in fully accepting His gracious gift that we truly receive Atonement for all the suffering we bring upon ourselves, and all we are subjected to because of others’ choices. If we don’t accept that Christ already paid for all the suffering, then the Atonement does us no good and He has sacrificed in vain.

When we receive a gift – one that’s perfect for us – are we grateful? Do we use the gift, or throw it away? How are we using the gift of the Atonement in our lives?

One childhood Christmas I received a tracing book while everyone else received a coloring book. Being extremely conscious of being different, I made a fuss. In response, my mom switched the books. Then I saw how much fun my sister was having and I wished I had the book back.

I think life is like that sometimes. We receive gifts/struggles that are not what we wanted or expected and we make a fuss. But God lets us keep the gifts He wanted us to have in order for us to learn how to use and treasure them. When we finally come to understand the purpose of our gifts, our trials, we are often amazed at how perfect they were for us after all.

It’s important, also, not to compare our gifts/lives with others’. We do not know God’s plan for them. We do not know what things others need to learn, what promises they may have made, or how their experiences may bless others’ lives. Perhaps they are exactly where they are supposed to be, doing exactly what they are supposed to be doing – just as we are.

I am thankful for each new day, as Anne of Green Gables said, “fresh with no mistakes in it.” Mortality, with all its beginning, offers us each week the opportunity to partake of a sacred beginning – the Sacrament. This ordinance is to remind us of the Atonement made in our behalf. How easily it can be forgotten that the Atonement was for me, for you, for the homeless person and the murderer. Thus, the Sacrament is taken individually to remind us that the Savior’s Atonement was personal, whether or not we receive it.

The Sacrament, as a renewal of our baptismal covenants will, if taken worthily, wash us clean once again. So, the next time we partake of those sacred emblems of our Redeemer’s love and sacrifice remember that we are beginning a new week, a new life, “fresh with no mistakes in it.” And whatever choices we make in the future let us see them as opportunities to become “one with” the Lord, who makes every new beginning possible.