Refining our lives and the stories we tell with the gospel

Every draft begins imperfectly. Words spill onto the page in raw form — some refined, clumsy, and misplaced, but all are waiting for the refining touch of an editor. The beauty of editing isn’t in perfection but in progression, in the willingness to revisit, reshape, and refine. Gordon B. Hinckley’s words remind us that life itself is an ongoing revision: “Each of us can do a little better than we have been doing.” Much like a writer confronting a rough draft, we are asked to look at our lives not with condemnation but with the determination to improve and a new set of eyes than our past selves of yesterday.

Editing teaches patience. The best editors do not slash and burn, with pure red ink coloring every mistake without feedback, but they guide, adjust, and polish with purpose. In its purest sense, the gospel is a process of spiritual editing — cutting away what holds us back and strengthening what moves us forward as we receive a guiding hand in the story of our lives that we are writing and get feedback from our editor of our creator in prayer.

It requires humility to acknowledge errors and wisdom to recognize what needs to change. Where writers remove unnecessary words, we remove pride, grudges, and selfishness. Where a draft is strengthened with a more transparent structure and outline from review, our lives are refined through faith, kindness, and repentance, like silver is refined and melting away the impurities until the refiner can see themselves within the silver, much like our Savior Jesus Christ is reflected within ourselves.

Yet, just as no story is beyond revision, no mortal soul is beyond the need to live out an earthly trial of life and be tempted as any man. Editing is a process, not an act of destruction. Mistakes do not define the final work — they highlight areas that need improvement. That is why we use repentance as we edit and make revisions.

The Savior’s Atonement is the ultimate editor’s tool, allowing us to correct, refine, and move forward without being bound by past drafts of ourselves. As the Savior remembers it no more, we too will be a more perfected work but will retain the knowledge of the old script, continually making a more perfect draft from our past mistakes. As Moroni taught of the Lord in Ether 12:27, “And if men come unto me I will show unto them their weakness.” As writers recognize weaknesses in a manuscript and revise, we, through humility and faith, can refine our spiritual lives, trusting that our efforts to improve will lead to a story worth telling in the eyes of the Lord; thus, through our weakness, we become strong.

In both writing and discipleship, persistence matters. A story is not great because it was written flawlessly the first time; it becomes great because someone cared enough to improve it. Likewise, a Christ-centered life is not about immediate perfection but constant, steady refinement. The key is to keep revising, growing, and striving to be a “little more kind, a little more merciful, a little more forgiving.”

We can see our lives as an ever-evolving manuscript. In that case, we can embrace mistakes as opportunities, accept guidance with gratitude, and move forward with faith — knowing that, in the hands of the Master, every story has the potential to be extraordinary.