Patricia T. Holland wrote:
What we too often fail to realize is that at the same time we covenant with God, he is covenanting with us—promising blessings, privileges, and pleasures our eyes have not yet seen and our ears have not yet heard. Though we may see our part in the matter of faithfulness going by fits and starts, by bumps and bursts, our progress erratic at best, God’s part is sure and steady and supreme. We may stumble, but he never does. We may falter but he never will. We may feel out of control but he never is. The reason that the keeping of covenants is so important to us is at least partly because it makes the contract so binding to God. Covenants forge a link between our telestial, mortal struggles and God’s celestial, immortal powers.
We bring all we can to the agreement, even if that doesn’t seem like much. Our heart, our devotion, our integrity—we bring as much as we can, but he brings eternity to it: he brings himself, priesthood and principalities, power and majesty beyond our wildest imagination. Just listen to the sure language of God’s covenantal promise to us in 3 Nephi: “For the mountains shall depart and the hills be removed, but my kindness shall not depart from thee, neither shall the covenant of my peace be removed, saith the Lord that hath mercy on thee” (3 Nephi 22:10). God is saying, in effect, think of the most unlikely things in the world, impossible things like the mountains departing and the hills being removed—think of the most preposterous events you can imagine, but still, even if they do, even then my kindness shall not depart from thee, neither shall the covenant of my peace be removed. . . .
The danger, of course, is that in times of pain or sorrow, times when the obedience and the sacrifice seem too great (or at least too immediate), we hesitate, we pull back from this divine relationship. How often when we have been asked to give our hearts, or give something from our heart, or give the latter-day sacrifice of a broken heart and a contrite spirit—how often when there is a difficult time or a bruising of our soul, do we shy away or openly retreat from a total and uncompromising trust in the One who knows exactly how to accept our gift and return it tenfold? God knows how to receive a broken heart, bless it, and give it back healed and renewed. He knows how to weep with love over such an offered gift, immediately bless it, mend it, and return it.
With God, whatever has become broken can be fixed. God doesn’t just pull out the tiny spikes that life’s tribulation have driven into us. He doesn’t simply pull out what one writer has called the nails of our own guilt, leaving us bleeding and scarred forever. No, we can finally trust our lives, our whole souls to the Great Physician, then He not only heals what was but goes one better and makes all things new—holier and happier, healthier than it ever was before. ~Patricia T. Holland, The Gift of the Atonement (Salt Lake City: Deseret Book, Deseret Book Company, 2002), 106-07
