My mind has been hurting as I have tried to understand what kind of test is mortal life? We know that we chose to come to Earth because we accepted God's plan (however strong or weak our conviction was). Did we know how we would be tested? Did Heavenly Father teach us all the right answers in pre-mortal existence classes and say, "Okay, you are ready to take the final now. Make sure you get ALL the answers right so you can come back and see me." Shoot, if this life were a multiple choice test the options to choose from would be from a to z times infinity for EACH question. Somehow I don't think this would be a very fair test. I also don't see how it would be a matching test. With every life circumstance there is no one-to-one ratio for the correct response. The Lord deals with our hearts and you and I cannot begin to understand how to score the answers of the heart.
Our Earth final is similar to this; we all have handicaps. Some of us suffer from spiritual dyslexia where our moral-right-and-wrong compass gets turned around and we choose poorly because we couldn't tell the difference between the two. Others, poor spiritual working memory. We know we have to read our scriptures daily, say our prayers always, feed the sick, clothe the naked, strengthen others by being a missionary, do our genealogy work, write in our journals, treat others with kindness... The list goes on forever. There are some that seem to manage it all. You know who I am talking about, the spiritual giants that do it all with a smile on their face. We are amazed at these people, and yet, we are not all meant to be the same in this life. So, there are those that can only manage to perfect a few of these skills at a time. So what! We all are handicapped, even the ones that seem to manage.
The mere fact that we are on Earth handicaps us because of our natural/carnal bodies. We are tempted by things of the flesh and that impedes our ability to make the right choices. Fortunately, we are all provided with a spiritual accommodation. (And here's where my analogy comes full circle.) God, our Father, has provided the ultimate accommodation, our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ. He lets us correct our answers when we ask him for help. It's called repentance. It's like a take home test where you can take your tutor home with you and you work on the answers together. Of course, not everyone takes advantage of this. It could be pride or ignorance, or whatever. Regardless, we all need His help to make the right choices and to fix the ones we get wrong.
As I have thought about this idea, I believe that life is a test. It is an essay test where we can make revisions with the Lord's help, through repentance. Our responses are truly subjective and only God, our Father, can make the final judgement. He knows what is in our hearts and ultimately that is what he wants to see. What did we do with the knowledge we had prior to this final test and how did we apply it? Did we learn from our mistakes? Did our responses demonstrate that we chose Him over whatever worldly fad or socially acceptable norm there was at time we lived? I know the scriptures and seeking the Lord's guidance is the only way to know the answers, so, I suppose, being conference weekend I will see what answers I can glean. As always, your thoughts are welcome. Thanks in advance for your input.
