“Continual Conversion,” For the Strength of Youth, Aug. 2023.
Continual Conversion
Striving for continual conversion isn’t complex. You can do it.
Conversion isn’t an award that’s handed to you at baptism and that you dust off every Sunday at church. Belief must be fed. Your conversion must be ongoing. You can’t rely on a big event to trigger it and expect it to deepen like an effortless chain reaction of dominoes falling.
Instead, you take deliberate steps along the way to build a better mortal and eternal life. Continual conversion comes in the little things you do every day, like when you apologize for saying an unkind word (or stop yourself from saying it in the first place) or when you remember to read your scriptures. It’s deciding again and again to keep believing. It’s always trying to do and be your best. That’s how you can become your best self and strengthen your faith in Heavenly Father and Jesus Christ.
Elder David A. Bednar of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles has said: “The gospel of the Savior … is essentially about doing and becoming good. And the Atonement [of Jesus Christ] provides help for us to overcome and avoid bad and to do and become good. Help from the Savior is available for the entire journey of mortality—from bad to good to better and to change our very nature.”1
Here are some ideas that may help.
Record Your Triumphs
If you feel your progress has stalled, try to notice the good things you do each day. Take a moment to write down all you did well today.
Attending church, studying the scriptures, keeping covenants, being kind, praying—these small triumphs are moments of goodness happening in your daily life. This is progression; this is you stepping toward your eternal destiny!
Strive for More Light
God rewards your small acts of faith each time you choose something good. He makes your efforts worthwhile by giving you strength, courage, and knowledge to keep moving toward eternal life.
Elder Neil L. Andersen of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles has said: “Through the years we take these important spiritual steps over and over again. We begin to see that ‘he who receiveth light, and continueth in God, receiveth more light; and that light groweth brighter and brighter until the perfect day’ [Doctrine and Covenants 50:24]. Our questions and doubts are resolved or become less concerning to us. Our faith becomes simple and pure.”2
As you become more converted to the gospel, you become better than you used to be. You learn about what it means to be a good person and what you’re capable of. The Holy Ghost teaches you as you seek to improve. As you receive more light, you become more like God and Jesus Christ, who are patient, compassionate, loving, wise, kind, and forgiving. In short, you come closer to perfection (see 3 Nephi 12:48).
Form Good Habits
Think about how you make a habit. You do something over and over until it becomes automatic. The same thing can happen with good thoughts. When you deliberately try to have thoughts to be kinder, love better, serve others, or be more grateful, your brain will have those thoughts more often. Then as you act on those thoughts, you’ll form a good habit.
To be more purposeful about becoming better, you might consider setting goals to focus on developing specific Christlike attributes.
For example:
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I will compliment three people each day so I can learn to see more goodness in people.
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I will not listen to bad music so the Spirit can always be with me.
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I will pray when I’m angry so that I’ll be kinder.
Habits like these can make it simpler to keep moving toward perfection and to live more joyfully now. It’s a lot easier to be good when you have a habit to “do good continually” (see Alma 63:2).
Remember the Good News
While you work to achieve the daily goal of living a happier, more Christlike life now, you also progress toward perfection. Isn’t that remarkable? You’re growing into the person you’re meant to become. And at the same time, you will improve your mortal life. Through it all, you get to be happy now and in the eternities.
That’s how God planned it. Choosing to be the best “you” by following Jesus Christ helps you and those around you. And it brings you into His loving arms for eternity.
The good news of the gospel of Jesus Christ gives you the incredible opportunity to understand life’s purpose and fulfill it. But it’s up to you. You choose whether or not to take that opportunity. Because of your agency, your “decisions determine [your] destiny.”3 Your choices matter because they build who you are now into who you will become. And who you will become is your destiny.
God trusts you. He wants you to return to Him and become like Him, and He created the perfect plan to help you do so. All you must do—what He knows you can do—is try your best to follow it.