Catching Up

When I was a student, I remember sometimes missing class or getting behind in some subject or other.  It was always possible for me to catch up, to make up the missing learning and get back with the class.  But the process was far more difficult, and I always felt like I was barely keeping my head above water, when this happened.  The principle is that it's easier to keep up than to catch up.



When teaching the youth, church leaders tend to emphasize the importance of keeping yourself clean.  Many people criticize the leaders because they feel it is harmful to those who have made mistakes, and devalues the importance of the atonement.  And I will admit that there are definitely some leaders who do use this harmfully, shaming those who made mistakes.  However, that doesn't mean the principle is wrong.  Keeping yourself clean is like keeping up in school.  It's just so much easier when we keep clean than when we have to catch up.  When we do make mistakes, it can feel like we are drowning.  Of course, through the atonement of Christ, we can be made clean again.  And then we can continue on our journey through life.

But think of the wasted time when we could have been improving in other areas.  We still can improve, it just means we are playing catch-up.  In some sense, we are all behind and all need to catch up.  The commandments that tend to be emphasized for the youth are those that lead to the most time for recovery and catching back up.  If we can learn to be obedient to those commandments, we can then focus on the other areas where we need to grow.  We will still make mistakes; none of us are completely whole.  We will all continually need the atonement in our lives.  But we can be further along in our learning curve, and not always feel like we are barely keeping our heads above water.