In our day and age we have an understanding of medical science. We understand the need for medical care of physical ailments. If someone is severely cut or if someone has cancer we take that person to a qualified medical professional. There are times that priesthood blessings have held in them the ability to do all the healing a person needs. But healing medical problems by priesthood blessings is not the standard. Instead we give blessings to our sick and medically afflicted before, during and after medical treatment. Our blessings bless the afflicted that the medical professionals will be skilled and inspired. The more medical experts act on true principals of healing the more skillfully they help their afflicted patients. Through true principals and spiritual guidance medical professionals work towards healing sick patients. In this way medical healing is not an act of healing by faith alone, it is an act of works, works by skilled professionals using true principals. The faith comes in as we ask the spirit to guide the professionals and strengthen the afflicted.
Why is it that we then fall into the trap of believing that emotional scars should be healed by faith alone? Many emotional scars and cancers also need the work of a skilled professional. Just as a gash needs to be stitched up severe emotional scars need to be nit together by a professional acting on true principals, under the guidance of the spirit. Severe emotional scars can be like a cancer, eating away at every aspect of a persons identity. In the case of physical cancers, teams of specialists are called in to test and determine with skill all the places that the cancer has spread to, all the areas of the body effected by the cancer. Then this team consults on the best ways to skillfully remove the cancer, in a way in order to enable the best healing for the patient. Emotional cancers caused by abuse spread throughout the persons whole belief system, eating away at all that is good in their life. As in the case of pyhsical cancer, emotional cancers many times need a skilled professional to evaluate how far the cancer has spread, and what areas of the emotions are being effected by it. Then the skilled professional considers how he can skillfully remove the cancer in a way that promotes the best healing.
For the healing of emotional scars and cancers the atonement offers guidance and true principals. The atonement can assist the emotionally afflicted before during and after the skilled emotional treatment. We would not take a deeply wounded person, who is actively loosing precious blood first to the priest and beg of them to stop the bleeding with prayer. We would not take a person ridden with cancer to the priest and beg of them to pray each bit of cancer out of them. We would not rely solely on faith to heal the physical ailments of the body. We would turn to a medical professional, and ask them to help us heal as we rely on faith and blessings to guide his principals and actions. The atonement can help knit the emotional wounds. The atonement can help shine light and truth into darkness, lighting the way towards healing. There are times, as with medical problems, when a blessing alone can help heal deep emotional problems, but that is not the standard.
If it was a true principal that the atonement alone could heal all emotional problems then we would not be placed here on the earth with other people. Because each of us alone could then turn to the atonement and heal by our self. But that is not the Lords plan. The Lords plan is for community, church, family, love and professionals to all be used in our life for good. I actively turn to an emotional professional to guide me on my path of emotional healing because I know that faith without works is dead. Faith alone will not heal the scars that were caused by evil works. Evil works must be combated with good works. I choose to turn to a professional to help me find and skillfully remove my emotional cancers. In this process of emotional healing I will lean on principals of the atonement in the beginning, in the middle and at the end. Emotional healing comes from good works and professional care guided by the principals of the atonement.
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