A Father's Love

This week I studied more about the Atonement of the Savior and everything that occurred on that very important night. I specifically studied Mark chapter four and was struck by the many things that were taught by the Savior in that chapter, even as He was being faced with an unimaginable task. One teaching that particularly stood out to me was what He taught His apostles after He had asked them to wait and watch out for Him as He went into the Garden of Gethsemane, only to find them fast asleep when He returned to where they were waiting. After the first time of finding them asleep, the Savior said to them, “The spirit truly is ready, but the flesh is weak.” That statement made by Christ stood out to me because it seems to me that the Savior is taking great compassion on His disciples for giving into even the smallest of temptations. Because the Savior knows us so well and He knows our struggles, He knows that sometimes we have the strongest desire to do such wonderful things to serve Him and God’s children, but we are unable to fulfill that desire as completely as we would like due to physical or circumstantial restrictions. He understands and He loves us for even just the desire that we have to do good. As I read about that specific story from the New Testament this week, I was truly comforted in remembering that all our Heavenly Father asks of us is our absolute best. He never expects us to be perfect; He only wants us to do everything that we can in order to follow the footsteps of His Son, Jesus Christ.