Two words.

Yesterday we had a lesson with a man named Stephen.

We showed up at his door at 1:30 in the afternoon to teach him about the Restoration. It was the hottest day of the year so far with a flaming 90+ degrees. PLUS the Virginia humidity. (I'm a baby when it comes to heat. Summer isn't even here yet.... I am going to melt.) We sat around his dinner table and told him about how God uses prophets to teach his children the gospel all throughout time. We taught him about apostasy and how it is a period of time when people reject the prophets and their teachings and how the people EVEN rejected Jesus Christ! We told him the story of Joseph Smith, who was called to be the next prophet to restore Christ's church. He silently took notes the entire time, giving an occasional nod or an "uh-huh" every now and then. 

This lesson was a toughie because I was hot and sticky and I kept messing up. To add to that... Stephen was going on about what it meant to be saved. He talked about how through Jesus Christ, we can all be saved and that faith without works is dead. Yes yes yes! I believe that too! But no matter how many times I tried to explain that to him, he wasn't having it.

He asked me what I would say to Jesus Christ if I were to die right in that moment.

I’ve never thought about that question before. What would I tell Christ? After giving it a good amount of thought, I told him I would tell Christ that I love Him, I did my very best to follow Him and to become like Him, and I did what I knew how to serve Him and His children.

After discussing the differences that he saw between Mormonism and his own personal faith, we said a prayer, thanked him for his precious time and left.

I was exhausted. I felt like I had just run a spiritual marathon. Thanks to the heat and humidity, I was probably sweating just as much if I had ran an actual marathon. The one thing that stayed with me after that lesson was, "What would I say to Christ if I were to die today?" I thought about the answer that I gave Stephen and how he tore my answer to pieces. What I said had come from the bottom of my heart. I honestly feel like if I were to meet my maker in this moment, I'd be able to fall down at his feet and pour my heart out, just as I had earlier.

After giving it a good amount of thought, I was able to narrow my answer down to two words...

I’m home.

 

So simple. I always think of just the right thing to say after the moment is gone. If I were to die right now, I am confident that I would know Him. Thank goodness I don't think I will die today. But I feel like I am doing everything I can to become like Him. I feel like I would be comfortable enough in his presence to tell him that I am finally home. I want to live my life in such a way that I will always be in a place to be able to tell him that. We never know when it will be our time to meet our Maker. By all means, I'm not perfect! I know I have a long way to go. I learn more about my savior and His atonement every single day. I know that because I am on the path that He wants me to be on, someday He’ll look at me with a big smile on His face and his arms outstretched saying, “Welcome home my friend.”