Witness Unto Thee

¹“O God, the Eternal Father, we ask thee in the name of thy Son, Jesus Christ, to bless and sanctify this bread to the souls of all those who partake of it, that they may eat in remembrance of the body of thy Son, and witness unto thee, O God, the Eternal Father, that they are willing to take upon them the name of thy Son, and always remember him and keep his commandments which he has given them; that they may always have his Spirit to be with them. Amen.” (D&C 20:77). Partaking of the Sacrament is an opportunity for us to reflect on the Savior and the Sacrifice He made for each and every one of us. Many of us try to go over our misdeeds and indiscretions and various sins of commission or omission and ask for forgiveness. This is an important and necessary and proper part of partaking of the Sacrament. But in the Sacramental Prayer, we covenant with our Heavenly Father that we will witness unto Him that we will always remember Christ and keep His commandments. When we partake of the Sacrament, how often do we reflect on and witness unto God our collection of triumphs against the adversary, all of the times that despite the various temptations and weaknesses and provocations that have combined to hedge up our way and lead us away from Christ we nevertheless persevered and endured to the end of another week and made many valiant and successful efforts to remember Christ and keep His commandments? It is a miracle that we make it through each week to partake of the Sacrament once more, and none of us can manage it without the Spirit and the divine influence of our Savior. We should be reviewing and offering up to the Lord all of the times that we were obedient and faithful as well as all of the times that we failed and have need to repent. The Sacrament is a memorial of not only Christ's death but also His Resurrection. It should be a time of mourning and a time of rejoicing both. It should be a time to repent of our sins and a time to bear witness of our faithfulness and obedience. If we spent as much time examining our successes as we did our failures, then we would much more readily and easily identify the hand of the Lord in our lives and see firsthand how His grace has lifted us up again and again above the corrupting influence of the natural man and of the world. I hope we all look forward to our Sacrament meetings and the chance we have to witness unto God just how many times we remembered Chris and kept His commandments.