Receiving the Savior’s Image in Our
Countenance
Good morning brothers and sisters, my
name is Ashlee Skinner, and this is my fourth semester here at BYU-Idaho. I was
asked to speak on receiving the Savior’s image in our countenance. At first, I
didn’t know exactly what it meant. I was thinking to myself, how am I going to
talk 12 minutes on this subject, but as I was preparing for this talk, I
couldn’t have thought of a better subject to speak to you guys on today,
especially a topic that I’ve grown in and personally seen in my life these last
few months. So with that being said, what does it mean to have received his
image in your countenance? In Alma 5:14 it reads
“And now behold, I ask of you, my brethren of
the church, have ye spiritually been born of God? Have ye received his image in
your countences? Have ye experienced this mighty change in your hearts?”
To receive Christ’s image in one’s
countenance means to acquire the Savior’s likeness in behavior, or to be a copy
or reflection of the Savior’s life. We know that we can’t become completely
perfect in this lifetime, but we know one day we will be able to.
I recently just bore my testimony, which
is probably the reason why I am up here today, but with that being said it was
similar to what I will be talking to you guys about. Like the scripture said,
usually receiving the Savior’s image in our countenance requires a change in
heart, and I don’t know if you want to call this a change of heart, but like I
said last week in my testimony, I had a roommate talk with one of my roommates
and we talked about life and our plans. All of our plans were good and good
paths to go down. I even joked with her and I said, “I know it, God is going to
throw me a curve ball and be like nope, you’re wrong, I don’t want you to have
that” and its funny how the Lord works because plans basically changed over
night after all of that. If you were to ask me a year ago or even a couple of
months ago about my future plans, I would have told you my this, this and this,
and all my set plans I had for myself. This semester I had been trying to live
more Christ-like though. I had goals set, and classes I was taking to help me
better myself. I think after that talk I realized I was living more for my own will,
I was doing good things, but I wasn’t praying about them and conversing with my
Heavenly Father and asking what God’s will was for me because I wanted my plan
and I thought I had it all figured out. In Alma 5:15 and 16 it says
15. Do ye exercise faith in
the redemption of him who created you? Do you look forward with an eye of
faith, and view this mortal body raised in immortality, and this
corruption raised in incorruption, to stand before God to
be judged according to the deeds which have been done in the mortal
body?
16. I say unto you, can you imagine to yourselves that ye hear the
voice of the Lord, saying unto you, in that day: Come unto me ye blessed,
for behold, your works have been the works of righteousness upon the face of
the earth?
I think that exercising faith is a big
step in being like the Savior and it’s definitely something that I’ve had to
learn. We are here for the Lord and we’re on his time and we need to live in a
way where we are exercising our faith we have been given and live accordingly
by putting our faith into the Lord’s eternal plan with what is best for us. He
knows us better than we know ourselves and has our best interest at heart. I
know this is kind of cheesy, but I thought about things I had said with my
roommate and how I was so against change and I wanted it my way, but I found
that my heart was softened and all of a sudden I was thinking about how and
what I could be doing to try to follow Christ better. I started doing things a
little differently and trying to live a life more like the Savior would, trying
to forget the worldly things, work on myself and being more open to God’s will,
doing the little things and following the spiritual promptings I had received
and while doing this learned as well to put all of my faith into Him knowing everything
will workout and so far, it has.
I think there are different times in
your life where we are more spiritually in tune with the spirit and more open
to what the Lord wants because of the way we are living our lives. We can
either live selfishly for ourselves and for the world or live like Christ would
for others. He wants to give us the best and if Heavenly Father has different
plans for me, I am willing to change them and follow him more fully because this
life is all about: to become perfected in Christ, follow his example and obtain
his attributes so that one day we can live with Him again.
Many also say that receiving the Saviors
Image in our Countenance is like being born again. A lot of times people who
are “born again” have a mighty change in heart. This is because we are coming
unto Christ, repenting of our sins, and trying to live a perfect life like the
Savior once did and showed us. I read a talk addressed in 1985 by Theodore M.
Burton called, “Being Born Again,” and in his talk he told this story.
One
day, as I was traveling on a plane to New England, I entered into a
conversation with a young stewardess sitting in the seat next to me. Most
members of our Church know how to steer a conversation toward the gospel, and,
before long, we were talking about religion. She told me that she had recently
been converted from her former manner of living and was now “saved.” I
congratulated her. Then she added that she was now a “born-again Christian.”
I asked her how she was born again, and she told me that she had accepted Jesus Christ as her personal
Savior and now believed in him. I told her how wonderful that was, but
explained that acceptance and belief in Jesus
Christ is
normally called faith. She said, “But I have changed my former way of thinking
and living. I am now on the path of eternal life.”
After
reading this story, I was reminded of several incidents in my own life where I
needed to decide if I was going to live the way that Heavenly Father wants us
to or the way I wanted to. When I was in high school, I had the opportunity to
live in the Marshall Islands for 3 years with my family. A little background on
this tiny little island: Its called Kwajalein and it is located in the middle
of the Pacific Ocean between Hawaii and Guam. It is a military base that tests
and tracks all the defense missiles around the world. It is about 2.5 miles long and about a half
mile wide. There are about 1200 people residing there, and guess how many youth
of the church we had on the island…. Out of the 120 students there were about 4
kids in my high school/ junior high combined. During these 3 years, I was faced
with many hard decisions. I grew up in Arizona where the majority of my friends
were all members and I never had to face many hard temptations. Living on this little island, yes, I had the
best of friends, but they participated in things that I decided that, when I
moved there that I would not engage in. This is one of the first times I was
faced with the decision if I was going to reflect Christ’s countenance or join
in on the ways the world. While living there, I will admit at times it was
really hard, I felt like sometimes my friends would diss me when I decided not
to do some things and say, “What is up with you and Mormonism?” “Or why do you
do that?” I know when I came in
situations like that, where I chose to have the light in Christ in me, it was
not easy like I said, but in the end, I impacted some people.
I had a friend named Alex. My junior year we
became a lot closer. Alex was a very talented kid and at that time, he was a
senior in high school and had so much going for him. However, he already was a
serious alcoholic at the age 18. Whether he would drink at parties or by
himself, his life started deteriorating.
As we hung out, he would offer me these things, and I would always joke
around with him about how he needed to stop or drop little hints to him. One day we had a talk and I don’t remember
exactly what was said but after that, something changed and he tried to stop
drinking. He would tell me his progress and then at parties would look at me
and smile because he didn’t drink anything. I didn’t really know that it was me
that had made such an impact on him until I moved 5 months later and he wrote
me a letter. In the letter, he told me that I had something different about me
that no one else on this island had. He said it was because of my example to
him that I was the reason he stopped drinking. he is someone who I have
witnessed that made me realize that we both are striving to receive His image
in our countenance. Alex noticed the way
I lived my life trying to emulate the Savior, noticed how happy I was, and he
changed because he wanted that too. Now, Alex today is completely a whole new
person. He leads services and plays guitar at his protestant church, and since
I’ve been back to visit my parents during Christmas and summer, he is the one
who actively has lead the Bible Studies and service projects for the college
kids and it is amazing to see his new found light and is trying to be like our Savior.
(Alex Letter)
As
true as it is, even though I set an example for him by the way I was living and
he saw it, he is a better example than I’ll ever be. I think its amazing that
it was his own choice to live a Christ-like life and that he has completely
changed his life to follow God and he has been the best example to me, even
though he’s not a member of our Church, he is trying to be like the Savior. He
is trying to have the image of God engraven in his countenances like this
scripture in Alma says in verse 19
19 I say unto you, can ye
look up to God at that day with a pure heart and clean hands? I say unto you,
can you look up, having the image of God engraven upon your
countenances
I
have many stories that I could tell you about trying to live like the Savior
when I was living in a place where members were scarce, but I’ll share one
more. At a younger age I decided I would
dress modestly. It was a decision I chose to live because I wanted to not
because I was asked to. Living in the Marshall Islands, going to the beach on a
weekly basis, requires wearing a swimsuit. To live like the Savior would, I
decided to still remain modest even though I was the only one. There were times
in the beginning where I felt kind of embarrassed, thinking to myself, I feel
so different and they are probably thinking I’m the weirdest person for wearing
a swimsuit like this. I mean we’ve all heard comments or remarks from others
that aren’t of our faith that think we live so “differently” and we can’t do
anything, that there are too many rules and that we are in simple terms “weird.”
However, one day, I received a message on Facebook from one of my teachers (Not
a member) that I had in 8th grade that I kind of kept in contact
with. She wrote me a little message that I’ll share with you guys:
Hey
Ashlee! I just wanted to tell you that I'm proud of you for your modesty &
maturity in your fb pics, specifically your swimsuit photos. (I'm trying not to
sound creepy!) Your positive morals and what you stand for show through your
pictures and that's extremely rare these days!.....
I think after receiving that message, I never
doubted living my standards and living like the Savior would because people are
always watching no matter what and to know that I was “caught” trying to
emulate what the Savior would do and was recognized thanked for it, I knew I
wanted to live a more Christ-like life. I feel like becoming like the Savior is
forgetting about the worldly things and the worldly standards. It’s being able
to give up these things, to follow Christ and to mirror his example.
In
closing I found a song that fit perfectly into this talk and I wanted to read
you some excerpts from it. It’s
called His
Image in Your Countenance by Janice Perry:
We seek
for light and learning as followers of Christ
That all may see His goodness reflected in our lives.
That all may see His goodness reflected in our lives.
When we
receive His fullness and lose desire for sin
We radiate His perfect love, A beauty from within.
The ways of man may tempt us and some will be deceived,
Prefering worldly beauty, Forgetting truth received,
But whisprings of the Spirit remind us once again
That lasting beauty, pure and clear must come from deep within.
We radiate His perfect love, A beauty from within.
The ways of man may tempt us and some will be deceived,
Prefering worldly beauty, Forgetting truth received,
But whisprings of the Spirit remind us once again
That lasting beauty, pure and clear must come from deep within.
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