Ending Well

Today I was blessed enough to go with the missionaries on one of their appointments. They asked me to come and share my testimony of the gospel along with my conversion story. As I got to the point where I spoke of how the Spirit told me Joseph Smith was a true prophet, I felt the Spirit throughout my entire being. I felt it so strongly. I fully expected to look up and see us surrounded by angels.

Prayerfully this dear investigator will read her Book of Mormon and continue to pray about the validity of the gospel. I saw fear in her eyes and I remembered how that felt. I told her, however, that I would not trade accepting the gospel for anything.

I was thinking about her while doing laundry earlier, along with the several converts we’ve had who’ve just stopped coming, and for some reason it brought back to my mind a study I did years ago in my Old Testament.

On several sheets of paper I made charts of the kings of both the Northern and Southern Kingdoms of Israel. I listed out their lineage, dates, and several facts about their life and reign. There was a pattern I noticed about many of the righteous kings that brought fear and a warning to my heart.

Many of the godly kings would live an entire life of righteousness, but at the end of their life commit a grievous sin. I made a note in my Scriptures at that time that said, “Remember to end well”.  We cannot just rest on previous righteousness, we must keep climbing toward our Heavenly Father. Once we stop to rest, we fall. There is no spiritual inertia to keep us steady while we are no longer actively working toward the goal of righteousness.

Although it is not my intention to end in the near future, it is my prayer that I end well.