Coming to know Christ

I frequently wrote in my journal as an 7 year old. Sometimes, I like to go back and read what I wrote. For instance, one of my favorites read, 

"We learn about Jesus every Sunday. I think I know almost everything about Jesus."

This makes me laugh every time I read it. I thought I knew so much because I had heard the stories over and over. The lessons all seemed the same. Now, I recognize that when I was seven, I didn't know Jesus, I just knew the stories. I didn't have a personal relationship with Him. 

Which also reminds me of a story I was told in Young Womens.

"A man died and was resurrected and waiting in a room to be interviewed. Another man was ahead of him. The door opened, the man entered, and the door closed. The man on the outside could hear the conversation on the other side of the door. The interviewer began: “I want you to tell me what you know about Jesus Christ.”

“Well, He was born of Mary in Bethlehem; he lived thirty-three years, spending the last three organizing his church, choosing his Apostles, and giving the gospel to direct our lives.”

The interviewer stopped him and said: “Yes, yes, that’s all true, but I want you to tell me what you know about Jesus Christ.”

“Well, he suffered and died so that we could have eternal life. Three days later he was resurrected so that we might return to Heavenly Father.”

“Yes, yes, that is true, but I want you to tell me what you know about Jesus Christ.” The man, a little perplexed, again began: “Well, he restored the gospel in its fulness to the earth through Joseph Smith, reorganized his church, gave us temples so we could do work to save our dead. He gave us personal ordinances for our salvation and exaltation.”

The interviewer again stopped him and said, “All of what you have said to me is true.” The man was then invited to leave the room. After he left the door opened and the second man entered. As he approached the interviewer he fell upon his knees and cried, “My Lord, my God.”

This story has always slightly haunted me for years. I feel like for a lot of my life, I have only studied the scriptures to just to put things in my knowledge bank. I thought this would make Christ happy. Sure, I could answer questions, I could retell the stories, I could describe what Christ tell us to do in certain situations, etc, but I never worked on developing a personal relationship with our Savior. 

This is the same story of Saul in Acts chapter 9. 

Saul knew every fact about the Old Testament and God. He could rattle of verses, laws, stories, etc. However, he failed to recognize Jesus when He appeared to him, and that scares me. 

In verse 5 it says, "And he (meaning Saul) said, Who art thou, Lord? And the Lord said, I am Jesus whom thou persecutest: it is hard for thee to kick against the pricks."  

It doesn't really matter how much we read the scriptures, how often we attend church, of if we ace every religion class, you can still fail to recognize Jesus despite how much you've studied and attended.

For one of my YW value projects, I went through a jar that was given to me by one of my leaders. In it, there were 21 slips of paper. Surrounding the jar were the words 21 days closer to Christ. Every single day you were supposed to read a certain passage of scripture, a story/talk, and then there would be a daily challenge relating to that topic. 

It taught me how to be Christlike and, therefore, closer to Christ. I testify that it is not enough to simply have knowledge of Christ. We need to know Him, and I mean really know Him. I have seen the blessings of having Christ in my life, especially over the past year and a half. I'm happier knowing Him. I can see all the blessings He has placed in my life. I can rely on Him. He is my guide. He is my friend. He is my Savior. 

Don't forget to be awesome!