“And that thou mayest more fully keep thyself unspotted from the world, thou shalt go to the house of prayer and offer up thy sacraments upon my holy day;” (D&C 59:9). In weight lifting, it is important to always arrange to have someone to spot us. Spotting primarily involves making sure the weightlifter’s strength doesn't give out to such a degree that we are crushed beneath the weight we are lifting. But a good spotter will also provide encouragement and help with our form and position, always pushing us to strive for our personal best, putting as much as but not more weight than we can bear. A bad spotter will not be paying enough attention to see when we are at our breaking point, won't help us to add or remove weights, will either egg us on to try weights we aren't ready for, or else will rob us of our strength by casting doubt on our capacity. When we are staggering under a heavy load, the very last place we want to look for someone to spot us is with Satan and his minions. Any help we might seek from the World is at best inadequate and at worst destructive or even lethal. Anyone who tells us that our weight is far, far too much for us and that it is not our fault that we are so weak and that no one would blame us for giving up - that person is not being a good and a true spotter. Anyone who nudges us and says look how much more that person is lifting than you, stop wasting your time with these puny weights - they also should not be our spotters. Anyone who promises to be right by our side the whole way but then passes by on the other side and ignores us just when we are at our moment of crisis - they also are not good spotters. We need to keep ourselves unspotted from the world by turning instead to our Savior Jesus Christ. He knows the exact right amount of weight to add to the bar that will help us reach our personal best. He knows just when to let us prove our own strength and take on the challenge using our own power, and just when to snatch the weight from us when our strength has been completely spent. He will not let us be crushed and He will not let us end a set early when we and He know that we've still got something left in the tank. I hope that we will all come to rely on our Savior to spot us and catch our weights with His grace, after we have lifted all that we can possibly lift and done all that we can possibly do.
