For those of you who don't read the Superschick blog...Lexi put this quote in this morning. Since I really liked it...and it is so appropriate for Easter, I thought I would share it with all of you...

Chieko Okasaki (a former counselor in the General Relief Society presidency) "We know that on some level Jesus experienced the totality of mortal existence in Gethsemane. It's our faith that he experienced everything - absolutely everything. Sometimes we don't think about the implication of that belief. We talk in great generalities about the suffering of the entire human family. But we don't experience pain in generalities. We experience it individually. That means Jesus knows what it felt like when your mother died of cancer - how it was for your mother, how it still is for you. He knows what it felt like to lose the student body election. He knows that moment when the brakes locked and the car started to skid. He experienced the slave ship sailing from Ghana toward Virginia. He experienced the gas chambers at Dachau. He experienced napalm in Vietnam. He knows about drug addiction and alcoholism.

There is nothing you have experienced as a woman that he does not also know and recognize. On a profound level, he understands about pregnancy and giving birth. He knows about PMS and cramps and menopause. He understands about rape and infertility and abortion.

His last recorded words to his disciples were, "And, lo, I am with you always, even unto the end of the world." (Matt 28:20) What does that mean? It means he understands your mother-pain when a bully picks on your fifth-grader, when your daughter calls to say that the new baby has Down's Syndrome. He knows your mother-rage when a trusted babysitter sexually abuses your two-year old, when someone gives your 13-year old drugs, when someone seduces your seventeen-year old. He knows the pain when you come home to a quiet apartment where the only children who ever comes are visitors, when you hear that your former husband and his new wife were sealed in the temple last week, when your fiftieth anniversary rolls around and your husband has been dead for two years. He knows all that. He's been there. He's been lower than all that.

...The door to Him is always open, but the door to you can be closed and stay closed if you choose to close it. If one great constant in the universe is the unfailing love of the Savior, the other great constant is his unfailing respect for human agency. He will not override your will, even for your own good. He will not compel you to accept his help. He will not force you to accept his companionship. He leaves you free to choose."