“The Atonement is, in fact, the most powerful motivational force in the world to be good from day to day and, when necessary, to repent when we have fallen short.”
“He doeth not anything save it be for the benefit of the world; for he loveth the world, even that he layeth down his own life that he may draw all men unto him.”
Paul taught that “the blood of Christ” purges or turns our “conscience from dead works to serve the living God” As we expand our knowledge of the Atonement and increase ourlove for the Savior and the cause for which he suffered, our hearts begin to soften and more readily yield to the motivational powers of his sacrifice. We find new reservoirs of commitment to serve the living God. Eventually there emerges a personal burning resolve that his suffering shall not have been in vain.

The Fall of Adam brought a few things along with it. It introduced physical death into the world. Adam was cast out of God’s presence and that became a spiritual death. The Atonement rectifies these two deaths by providing a resurrection to overcome death and also brings each person into God’s presence again at the end of this life, overcoming that spiritual death.
Being born into this world we are surrounded by choices and there is the chance that we choose to break God’s commandments. In fact, it is said in the scriptures that all (except Jesus) have sinned and come short of the glory of God. These are sins, not of Adam’s choice, but of our own. Adam is not responsible for my sins. The Atonement also gives us hope to overcome our own personal sins, if we repent.
Because of the Fall Adam lost immortality, God’s immediate presence, innocence.
The Atonement rectifies death by resurrection, restoring immortality and restores us to God’s presence. We lost innocence, but gained knowledge and ability to choose and the ability to have family, to have children. If we repent we can regain being clean.

What is the Atonement? The suffering, power and love manifested by the Savior in the Garden of Gethsemane, the cross and the tomb.
Three principal purposes of the Atonement include 1. restoring that which was lost by the Fall of Adam. Namely, the resurrection to overcome death and restoring all men to the presence of God, overcoming the separation caused by the Fall. 2. Provide the possibility of repentance. With the cleansing power of the Atonement, we can be cleansed from our sins. 3. Exaltation. The Atonement provides us with the power to not only be cleansed from sin, but to become better and better, to lift us above our situations. To become one with the Savior as he prayed for those who believed him that “they all might be one; as thou, Father, art in me, and I in thee. “

It has been said about the atonement that “nothing in the entire plan of salvation compares in any way in importance with that most transcendent of all events, the atoning sacrifice of our Lord. It is the most important single thing that has ever occurred in the entire history of created things… The Savior’s life can be divided up into three categories, his message, his ministry and his mission.
His message did not only come from his lips. He had inspired prophets before and after his life to teach and preach his gospel. His ministry included miracles and power over nature and elements, things that he had also had given others to do, including Moses and Peter. But his mission, the atonement, was unique and could not be delegated. Only he could perform it. Understanding the atonement is important, so we know how to be saved.
Why study this atonement? The more we know of the atonement, what it covers and how it covers it, the more we know how to apply it’s balm to our lives and the lives of those around us. Further, as we study it, it can be a source of inspiration to us in our lives.

Finally p 362 “Here’s my point: usually, all we get is a glimmer. A story we read or someone we briefly met. A curiosity. A meek voice inside, whispering. It’s up to us to hammer out the rest. The rewards of pursuing it are only for those who are willing to listen attentively, only for those people who really care….Finding what we should do is one of life’s great dramas. It can be an endless process of discovery, one to be appreciated and respected for its difficulty.”

More quotes: p327 “A culinary academy is where a cook is turned into a chef. I’d talked to other people who, like Kurt, had turned to cooking after a midlife crisis. There’s something about nourishment, and nourishing others, that helps people to heal. Half the student body of most culinary schools are people in emotional transition.”
“You have to give yourself permission to enjoy the life that you have been given.

ch 46. Fears are inherited too.
This chapter tells a story of a guy who went running away from home to avoid the chronic illness of his father. Sometimes home haunts and drives us in ways we need to deal with.
“Becoming a parent can trigger a return of meaning, a sort of meaning audit. The relationship with your child is so meaningful it can reveal just how meaningless other things in your life are. And people deal with this information in opposite ways. Many people suddenly are relieved of the burden of finding meaningful work. They’re perfectly content to punch the clock; family provides meaning now. if they can afford to, they’d rather stay home with the kids. But just as commonly, this meaning audit compels people to hold a higher standard to their life; they can no longer waste half their waking hours on some job that doesn’t do it for them. They don’t want their child to watch them lead a dispassionate life. Almost half the people in this book are parents.”

p 293 “Everybody needs fuel for their engine. Making seven figures on Wall Street is cheap wood, it burns up too fast. I need something that burns well. That’s substantive. That’s real.”
“One of the things I’ve learned from this book is, don’t pretend what you do doesn’t shape you.”
“And when you’ve had to fight to know yourself, you don’t give that ground back, not to anything.”

More quotes: p 286 “That summer popped his belief in what he calls the Academic Bubble World Myth—the notion that a student can ‘know’ a subject merely by reading books about it and writing papers, without ever having experienced it firsthand.”
“Call me romantic, but deep down I want to be great. I want to believe in a cause or an idea bigger than my individual financial or career progress. Deep down, that’s why I can’t get myself to look seriously at law or business school applications. Tell me, is there really anything—anything at all—’great’ about working for a firm or corporation? and so here I am, chasing greatness.”
“At Yale, we were taught that people in the cities are poor because of factors outside their control. I used to think that inner-city kids only needed to connect. They needed love and understanding. And so if they were disorderly in class, I would let it go as a way of making them my friend, currying their favor. And they kicked my ass. They abused me. if I gave an inch, they would take a mile. I couldn’t connect with them.They did not respond to kindness, they took advantage of it. My class would be continuously disrupted. I learned the hard way. What they need is someone to teach them habits that lead to success later in life. They need someone to tell them when they’ve done something wrong. Kids face a thousand choices, and they need someone to teach them to make the right choices. How to handle social situations, how to take responsibility and not make excuses. I’ve become much more conservative by working here. It’s the last think I expected. It’s much more like how my father raised me, with tough love.”
p 289 ”’We teach character, I didn’t know what character was when I came here. I was chronically late, and my body language was distant. I had to learn character in order to teach it, and I’m a much better person now. I handle situations better.’”
“The situation that got them in trouble is replayed in conversation, moment by moment and the students are repeatedly asked how they could have handled the moment differently. It’s drilled into them that they make choices. They become aware, and they stop acting without thinking.”
“They are never asked to memorize—they’re only asked to demonstrate exemplary character: perseverance, integrity, respect, responsibility, courage. The highest honor in the school is not a 4.0 GPA —it’s to receive the Gambatte Award for exhibiting character. This can be for an act of generosity, or for resisting peer pressure, or for avoiding a fight.”
“The truth is, I don’t really think about what I should do with my life, I love my school, and I stopped thinking about it.”
Sounds great, yet the chapter ends talking about the imbalance of the guy’s life. Hmm. He has no girlfriend, works terrible hours that can’t be sustained for a lifetime. Not complete. But a good description for what satisfaction tastes like.

Chapter 43. Where fears hide This is your own responsibility.
Here he talks about himself. He fantasized about working with his wife. “Sharing made everything more interesting.” His wife was a writer and editor and he shared everything he wrote with her first. She was a tremendous influence, but he says that she was also a crutch. He left her (for other reasons) and found that he couldn’t write without her help. He recognized his weaknesses and faced them. He wrote his next book by facing those weaknesses and strengthening them. He developed greater strength as a writer. He also says that he became a better listener. And he discovered a strength in himself where he didn’t need the crutch of his spouse’s approval. His writing stands alone. “I’m careful not to let my work be an obsession that gets between us. I know that if writing is my dream, then it’s my responsibility alone. I never again want to use another person that way.”