The Celestial Staircase

In Book of Mormon this past week, we discussed the famous pride cycle. For example, in Helaman 11, the Nephites start out in a state of wickedness. Nephi prays to have a famine come upon the people so that they will repent.When the famine comes the people become sorrowful and humbled because of the destruction that has come upon them. Seeing their repentance, Nephi prays to Heavenly Father to send rain again. The land then began again to bring forth fruit in the season and the Nephites were blessed and prospered. Just three years later the Nephites return to their wicked ways.
In class, Brother Griffin presented two other cycles. The Telestial Spiral remains on the right side of the circle when our own sorrows only lead to more pride and the cycle repeats. The Celestial Staircase; however, remains on the left side of the circle. This occurs when our prosperity leads us to be humble because we are able to recognize the hand of the Lord in our lives. Humility leads to repentance and then to more blessings and prosperity. This is the cycle that we want to emulate in our lives. We can do this as we put our trust in Heavenly Father and choose to lay everything at His feet. Everything we have in this life has come from Him so it seems only right to attribute the praise to Him and to turn to Him in gratitude. This side of the cycle is called the Celestial Staircase because it embodies the perspective that a person must have in order to gain Exaltation. This cycle depends on humility which is submitting our will to Heavenly Father's will, giving up the natural man, making sacrifices now for an eternity of blessings incomprehensible.