Peter, denial, and Repentance

Well, I have been told almost every Monday at the MTC, in broken Romanian, that scripture study is important.  I have been struggling lately with feeling motivated to do my scripture study and really apply it to my life so that I get more out of it.  So, tonight, after getting back from work super late I decided to get in some study and picked up the General Conference issue of the Ensign and turned to the first talk by Elder Richard G. Scott of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles and, low and behold, it is about scripture study. 

While reading it I decided that if I write out some of my thoughts once in a while in my blog here that I can use that to get more out of my scripture study and make it more effective.  Plus, I do keep this as somewhat of a 'journal' (I know it might not 'count', but it is a close as I can get!) and once you put it on the internet it is there forever (well...kind of) and so this will allow me to let loose with my spiritual side once in a while. 

Therefore, as I was reading Elder Scott's talk, I was struck by the story of Peter and his denying Christ during his judgement.  It is such a tragic moment for Peter.  I see parallels relating to our own relationship with Christ. When we were all together as an eternal family with Heavenly Father and Jesus Christ in the pre-existence before this life we chose to follow God's Plan and sustained Jesus' position as our future Savior and Messiah.  I believe that we felt so much love for our Elder Brother Christ and we sure of the righteousness of God's plan and possibly we too had a similar exchange with Christ before we left for this mortal realm. 

I can image us assuring Jesus, and the Father, that we truly would remain faithful and not deny Christ.  But our Elder Brother knew already that we would fall and sin, it was why he was required to Atone for our sins.  When we sin we deny Christ, we are no longer working towards perfecting ourselves, but instead submitting ourselves to Satan.  When earlier in Christ's mortal ministry Peter tried to convince Christ to save himself Christ said, "Get thee behind me, Satan!"  In the Book of Mormon, the prophets constantly remind us to have the "image of Christ in our countenances", when we sin we do not have His image in our hearts, but that of our own desires. 

But even as after Peter denied Christ three times, but was forgiven by Christ when he repented, so can we.  Peter became the chief Apostle and President of the Ancient Church, suffering persecution and many troubles because of his testimony of Christ, all this after showing how weak he could be.  We must be like Peter and repent of our sins, our weakness, and become strong in Christ to do his will and be able to be made clean in His blood and return to our Heavenly Father.  We cannot be content to accept Christ once, but we must accept him every day and truly have his image engraved in our hearts and minds. 

I hope that I can become anything like Peter, that great Apostle, and I know that if I can even get a little close it will only be through repentance, faith, and holding to the covenants which bind me to Christ and Heavenly Father.