Bringing the Lord to a fulness of joy

This post is part of the General Conference Odyssey. This week covers the Sunday Afternoon Session of the April 2004 Conference.

This session had such beautiful talks on the atonement of Jesus Christ! Elder Bruce Hafen sounds like Elder Maxwell (I know they were friends) when he talks about the price of Christ's atonement. I love his insight that in this earth life we are "trying to master the lessons of 'the great plan of happiness' so we can return home and know what it means to be there." 

And Elder Ballard's talk came after the recent death of his grandson, and was so heartfelt. How could I have ever thought he was boring to listen to? I feel like I know him better now, looking backwards. I loved these words from his talk:

We are part of [Heavenly Father's] family. He is not a father in some allegorical or poetic sense. He is literally the Father of our spirits. He cares for each one of us.…In that unprecedented appearance of the Father and the Son in the Sacred Grove, the very first word spoken by the Father of us all was the personal name of Joseph. Such is our Father’s personal relationship with each of us. He knows our names and yearns for us to become worthy to return to live with Him.

He continued this theme about how Heavenly Father "yearns for us" to come back to Him, and I really liked it. I've mostly only thought about the promise that for us, how great shall be our joy if we bring but one soul unto him. I haven't thought much about my ability to bring joy to God—it seems so insignificant in comparison to the joy He brings to me—but I love the thought that there's something I can do that will truly bring Him joy.

It was Jesus who said, “If … you should labor all your days in crying repentance unto this people, and bring, save it be one soul unto me, how great shall be your joy with him in the kingdom of my Father!”. Not only that, but great shall be the Lord’s joy in the soul that repenteth! For precious unto Him is the one.…

Each one of us is precious to the point of bringing the Lord God Almighty to a fulness of joy if we are faithful, or to tears if we are not.

Maybe partly because of our Abe returning from home his mission this week, I find the image of God Himself "rejoicing over one soul" (and crying over one soul!) so powerful! Again, I already knew that I would love returning home to Heavenly Father and Mother, but to think that They, also, just as much, will love having me back? It's so amazing! It's powerful because it makes me want to bring that joy to Them myself. And it's powerful because it makes me see how much my love for others, helping my brothers and sisters return to Them, means to my Heavenly Parents as well.