The Tag that Keeps it Together

    I was thinking about the name tag that I wear every day. I love being a missionary! "Elder Falslev" I love looking down and seeing those words finally written on one of those little black tags. What I love so much more than that is the fact that right underneath my name is the name, "Jesus Christ". Thus I am constantly seeing the reason I am out here on a mission! Someone in the missionary training center pointed out to me that, "the reason Christ's name is under ours is that He lifts us up! If we were to get rid of that name, nothing would hold ours up." Quite literally, my name would mean nothing without His. I love my tag!!

       Being on a mission can be hard. Especially when I forget who is there to support me... I forget to let Christ lift me up... I have learned that we constantly can change though! I can make a choice and let Christ come into my life. I am grateful for this tag! It constantly reminds me of the person I represent.
      President Monson says it best, "The decision to change one's life and come unto Christ is, perhaps, the most important decision of mortality". Decide now to Come unto Christ! This quote reminds me to make the decision every day to put on that name tag and remember who it is I am representing!



One of the most frequent words in Christ's vocabulary was a small one - Come.

The gesture which we associate with him echo the same idea.

Arms outstretched in welcome, his entire being said, "Come."

This is not a restricted invitation for the few, for the elect, for those who somehow deserve it; he made it open and for all, no matter how weak or afraid or hesitant.

"Come unto me all ye that labor and are heavy laden," he said, "and I will give you rest." (Matthew 11:28)

At another time he said, "suffer the little children to come unto me, and forbid them not, "appealing to the little child in each of us. (Luke 18:16) 

Come follow me, in fact, was the message of His life. Come. It is an immediate appeal, admitting no excuses. We who say to the Lord, "I am too busy; I am too tired; I will work for you at another time," have missed the point. There is not a mortal being who is not burdened with the cares that threaten to absorb him altogether. All are preoccupied, all busy.

But when Christ said to Peter and Andrew fishing in the sea of Galilee, "Come... and I will make you fisher of men, " they dropped their nets and came. (Mark 1:17)

Come. It is without qualification. Not come when we are perfect. Not come when we have no doubts, when life is uncontested and we have no problems. Nor is it an invitation to come only when life is at its darkest-only in time of dire need. It is simple, "Come now. Come as you are." Why is the Lord so insistent about this invitation? Probably because He walked with us and knows firsthand the mysteries, violence and contradictions of life on this earth. He knows if we will come to Him in pain, we will leave in joy. If we come in confusion, we will leave in clarity. If we come in darkness, we will leave in light. So He offers the invitation and leave is extended with a kind of divine hopefulness-until we respond.

Come Unto Him.