QUESTIONS OF FAITH: Look carefully for potential

I STILL HAVE I had a passion for cars. When I was little, I saved up to buy Matchbox cars and Hot Wheels. When I was old enough to buy my own car, I spent hours fixing it and cleaning it.

I love looking at cars for sale online. Every now and then I buy one that I think has potential and fix it up. My wife is less enthusiastic about my passion for cars, but she is tolerant of my particular hobby.

I recently purchased a 1981 GMC truck. It was starting to show some wear and tear, but I saw a lot of potential in it. I've done a few things here and there to make it shine and keep it on the road for many more years.

When I buy a car that needs work, I have a vision in my head of what the car could look like with a little restoration, upgrades, and elbow grease.

I love seeing the transformation that happens. Sometimes I take before and after pictures. My kids gloat and tell me how beautiful it looks compared to the before picture, while I look at the picture with big eyes, smiling like Clark Griswald looking at the Christmas lights on his house.

At this point, some of you are wondering, “What does this have to do with the Questions of Faith section? Have I stumbled upon an automobile section of the newspaper?” Wait a minute. Let me explain.

As bishop of the Mt. Pleasant Ward of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, I regularly work with young people. I look at them and see their wonderful potential. I imagine the amazing things they will do in their lives. I notice their goodness and kindness. I appreciate their talents and accomplishments. I watch them grow and learn more about the Savior and His gospel with wonder.

I then reflect on how our Heavenly Father must view the rising generation. He knows their incredible abilities and wonderful potential.

I wish our young people could have a glimpse of what I recognize in them, what their parents see in them, their divine potential and their heritage as children of our Heavenly Father. I hope they will know deeply God’s great love for them.

Sometimes it's hard to see our own potential. We may think it's too late to change once we've formed our habits.

However, I don’t think the Lord thinks it’s ever too late. His timeline is very different than ours. Because of our heavenly DNA, we all have extraordinary glory and opportunities waiting for us. Eternity is a very long time for us to learn line by line, precept by precept.

The theme for the youth of the Church this year is found in 3 Nephi 5:13. It says, “Behold, I am a disciple of Jesus Christ, the Son of God. I have been called of him to declare his word among his people, that they may have eternal life.” A disciple is a follower, someone who is improving and trying to become more like Jesus.

This rising generation is intelligent, charitable, compassionate, and fundamentally good. Add to that a desire to be a disciple of Jesus Christ, and they are magnificent.

As with the old GMC truck, some might look at the exterior and not see the potential.

Some of us may need encouragement and someone to help us recognize our own divine potential.

God knows each of us perfectly. A loving heavenly Father desires us to have joy in our lives. He trusts us.

When we make room for God in our lives, when we look at others with charity, love, and compassion, and when we become disciples of Jesus Christ, we begin to see who we really are, beloved children of our Heavenly Father with a divine nature and an eternal destiny.

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Issues of Faith is a rotating column written by faith leaders from the North Olympic Peninsula. Bishop Jason Bringhurst is the leader of the Mount Pleasant Ward of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints in Port Angeles. His email address is [email protected].