Reason 15: I'm grateful for the Savior because He is the source of all truth. Today I read Moroni 8, wherein Mormon had to correct doctrine concerning the age of accountability and children, telling them that children are innocent and need not repent until after they are baptized at age 8. When I read this, I was reminded of a story that President Packer told in General Conference last April:
"Around the turn of the previous century, two missionaries
were laboring in the mountains of the southern United States. One day, from a
hilltop, they saw people gathering in a clearing far below. The missionaries
did not often have many people to whom they might preach, so they made their
way down to the clearing.
A little boy had drowned, and there was to be a funeral. His
parents had sent for the minister to “say words” over their son. The
missionaries stood back as the itinerant minister faced the grieving father and
mother and began his sermon. If the parents expected to receive comfort from
this man of the cloth, they would be disappointed.
He scolded them severely for not having had the little boy
baptized. They had put it off because of one thing or another, and now it was
too late. He told them very bluntly that their little boy had gone to hell. It
was their fault. They were to blame for his endless torment.
After the sermon was over and the grave was covered, the
elders approached the grieving parents. “We are servants of the Lord,” they
told the mother, “and we have come with a message for you.” As the sobbing
parents listened, the two elders read from the revelations and bore their
testimony of the restoration of the keys for the redemption of both the living
and the dead.
I have some sympathy for that preacher. He was doing the
best he could with such light and knowledge as he had. But there is more that
he should have been able to offer. There is the fullness of the gospel." (April 2012, "And a Little Child Shall Lead Them")
What I read in Moroni, along with this story, provide just one example of the truth that the fullness of the gospel provides. I'm so grateful that I belong to a church that teaches that little children are precious, clean, and pure until they reach the age of accountability (8) and are baptized. I'm so grateful that Christ was willing to come to the earth to restore truths like this one, and so many more. I'm so grateful for the comfort, love, and direction I get from receiving and following His truth. His way is the good and true way, and I intend to follow it.
"Jesus saith unto him, I am the away, the truth, and the
life: no man cometh unto the Father, but by me." --John 14:6
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