[candyprpl]

C.S. Lewis -- ...He [Heavenly Father] warned people to 'count the cost', before becoming christians. 'Make no mistake,' He says, if you let me, I will make you perfect. The moment you put yourself in My hands, that is what you are in for. Nothing less than that. You have free will, and if you choose, you can push Me away. But if you do not push Me away, understand that I am going to see this job through. Whatever suffering it may cost you in your earthly life, whatever inconcievable purification it may cost you after death, whatever it costs Me [the Atonement] I will until my Father can say without reservation that He is well pleased with you, as He said He was well pleased with me. This I can do and will do. I will not do anything less. Of course we never wanted, and never asked, to be made into the sort of creatures He is going to make us into. But the question is not what we intended ourselves to be, but what He intended us to be when he made us. The job will not be completed in this life; but He means to get us as far as possible before death. That is why we must not be surprised if we are in for a rough time. ...because God is forcing him [us] on, or up, to a higher level: putting him into situations where he will have to be very much braver, or more patient, or more loving, than he ever dreamed of being before. It seems to us all so unnecessary; but that is because we have not yet had the slightest notion of the tremendous thing He means to make of us. 'Be ye perfect,' is not a command to do the impossible. He is going to make us into creatures that can obey that command. He said that we are 'gods' and He is going to make good His words. If we let Him -- for we can prevent Him, if we choose. If we let Him, He will make the feeblest and filtiest of us into a god or goddess, a dazzling radiant immortal creature, pulsating all through with such energy and joy and wisdom and love as we cannot now imagine, a bright stainless mirror which reflects back to God perfectly (though of course, on a smaller scale) His own boundless power and delight and goodness. The process will be long and in parts very painful, but that is what we are in for. Nothing less. He meant what He said.