Letting Go.

MY PRECIOUS!!

 I love Lord of the Rings, probably my favorite trilogy of all time. One of the most best characters (and weirdest) in the series was Smeagol/Gollum. Once an innocent hobbit, he fell upon the one evil ring. With his one friend, the two got into a fight. The end result was Smeagol murdering his fellow hobbit in cold blood.





He ran away.. tormented by the ring. Later he formed an alternate personality and his name would be Gollum. Sadly, Gollum was a huge downer. He would always remind Smeagol of his awful crime and say he can never go back to who he was. With the help of Frodo, Smeagol did conquer Gollum for a bit. But later unfortunately, he came back and finally convince Smeagol to give up and get the ring back.

Eventually Smeagol gets the ring back.. but then slips and falls into some magma.


Smeagol's story is a tragic one. His life is an example of a reoccurring theme in each of our lives. We all maybe have a Gollum inside of us. And he reminds us of our guilt, shame, and the past. He tells us that we can never be forgiven for the mistakes we have committed.

Whether this is ourselves telling all of these things, essentially it's Satan. The Father of all lies will do everything to bring us down. We are God's children, His work and glory. The adversary will do all he can to bring us down to his level of misery.

But God loves us. And he provided a way to escape Satan's hold on us. Of course His way is through His Son,  Jesus Christ. In the Book of Mormon another testament of Jesus Christ, Alma describes how he suffered for not only our sins, but our pains, afflictions, sorrow and guilt (Alma 7:11). Christ knows all that we went through and will continue to go through in our lives. The Atonement is infinite and continuous for each of us. How do we do it? First have faith in our Father in Heaven. Pray to him, ask for strength and maybe even for forgiveness. Poor your heart and confess everything to Him. Next, have faith in Jesus Christ. Have faith that his grace and mercy will heal you in time. He is the only one who knows your suffering. And most importantly repent. Only through repentance can we receive the blessings of a guilt free conscious.

It won't be easy. Letting go of the past is difficult. But I promise through repentance, having faith in Christ we can be forgiven and move forward. After that has been said and done, we then can look in the mirror and forgive ourselves. And see we are a changed person, ready to face life's challenges once again. This time, stronger.