awww, what a cute pic.
And I am not crying over “spilt milk”. In a way I am grateful for having been LDS. My experience helps me witness to those still in the Mormon Church better.
And more importantly, I learned valuable lessons, lessons that led me to Christ:
1) I learned to test everything against the Bible. I did not do that before I was LDS, nor while I was LDS. It came about as I was beginning to leave and comparing LDS doctrine to the Bible.
2) I learned that no “church” can save me. Only Christ can. The LDS church is very rigid regarding behavior, rules, rites, ordinances, etc. I was very “religious” as LDS but that didn’t get me any closer to God like they promised me.
3) Finally, I learned that I could never save myself. My works did nothing. I had a particularly demanding landlord who criticized everything I did (clean house, shower, dress, ate, read, prayed, sang, ad infinitum). I tried my best for almost a year to please this woman, but it was never good enough. It made me realize, in a very real way, that if my “best” wasn’t good enough for her, there was no way it could ever be good enough for God, who demands so much more.
Those three lessons, and some others, prepared me to hear the Gospel of salvation by grace through faith in Jesus alone. So, in a way, being LDS, helped lead me to become a Christian.