The Gospel is beautiful.
And those who follow it reflect it's beauty.

You can see it in their eyes, you can feel it in their embrace. You can witness it in their family relationships. It is in the way they listen sincerely to their children or their spouse. It is in the way they have a soft answer during an emotionally challenging moment. It is in their choices.

Those who truly grasp the importance of the Gospel of Jesus Christ, who embrace the fullness of what it teaches to the best of their capacity, who have faith that God can make more of them through the healing and restoring power of the Atonement than they can make of themselves, and who accept a loving God who gave His only begotten Son as a propitiation for sin, are changed forever. Their hearts are changed to the core, and they long for righteousness and beauty in their lives. They become like the High Priests after the order of the Son of God described in the Book of Mormon:

Now, as I said concerning the holy order, or this high priesthood, there were many who were ordained and became high priests of God; and it was on account of their exceeding faith and repentance, and their righteousness before God, they choosing to repent and work righteousness rather than to perish;
Therefore they were called after this holy order, and were sanctified, and their garments were washed white through the blood of the Lamb.
Now they, after being sanctified by the Holy Ghost, having their garments made white, being pure and spotless before God, could not look upon sin save it were with abhorrence; and there were many, exceedingly great many, who were made pure and entered into the rest of the Lord their God.

Sara Groves wrote a song a few years ago called "Add to the Beauty", whose message I really like:

We come with beautiful secrets
We come with purposes written on our hearts,
Written on our souls
We come to every new morning
With possibilities only we can hold,
That only we can hold

Redemption comes in strange places, small spaces
Calling out the best of who we are
And I want to add to the beauty
To tell a better story
I want to shine with the light
That's burning up inside

It comes in small inspirations
It brings redemption to life and work
To our lives and our work

It comes in loving community
It comes in helping a soul find its worth

Redemption comes in strange places, small spaces
Calling out the best of who we are

And I want to add to the beauty
To tell a better story
I want to shine with the light
That's burning up inside
This is grace, an invitation to be beautiful
This is grace, an invitation

I want to add to the beauty around me. I want to live so that the beautiful things in this world are strengthened and expanded and the hard and the ugly things of this world find no place in my heart. I want to reflect God's light in times and places of spiritual darkness. I want to create bonds of friendship and love with those around me that are real and true. Inasmuch as it is within my power I want to work to provide my posterity a world where life is precious; where children and the elderly are treasured, loved, and protected; where true beauty is exalted, and the superficial and vacuous have no hold on the hearts of men; where parents are honored and respected; where God is still invited to dinner; and where the home is sacred ground. I want to contribute something to this world that makes a difference, no matter how small, because I know that a handful of people thinking that way, when they are well placed and divinely directed can do a world of good. All is not lost. This world still has a better hope in Christ.

It all comes down to our choices. Even if all the world seems to be crashing down around us, we may choose to hear Jesus' clarion call "Peace, be still...In this world ye shall have tribulation, but be of good cheer, I have overcome the world...Look unto me in every thought, doubt not, fear not"(Mark 4:39, John 16:33, D&C 6:36). C.S. Lewis, in his book Mere Christianity, wrote the following about our choices:

...Every time you make a choice you are turning the central part of you, the part of you that choses, into something a little different than what it was before. And taking your life as a whole, with all your innumerable choices, all your life long, you are slowly turning this central thing either into a heavenly creature or into a hellish creature; either into a creature that is in harmony with God, and with other creatures, and with itself, or else into one that is in a state of war and hatred with God, and with its fellow-creatures, and with itself...the right direction leads not only to peace, but to knowledge. Mere Christianity, pp.87-88

Which path are you choosing? Are you choosing to seek God with all your heart, are you choosing love and peace, or are you letting something stand in the way? It could be your anger, your unforgiveness, your addictions to drugs, alchohol, pornography. It could be your indifference to the suffering of others, or your indifference to your own suffering. It could be depression, or fear, or hurt or a host of other feelings and circumstances that have come upon you not because of anything you did, but because of the bad choices of others. It could be some mixed up, messy combination of all of the above. Though it hurts sometimes to realize and acknowledge it, in some way or another we are all choosing to be where we are right now. We are all broken and in need of rescuing. This moment forward is the only time period over which we have any personal control( See Stephen Curtis Chapman's album "This Moment" for more on that subject). As Jonathan Foreman once penned so eloquently, "This is your life, are you who you want to be?" If the answer is no, then I can testify to you with absolute certainty that there is a way to turn it to yes.

Is there a particle of willingness in you to lay whatever it is that is keeping you from Him at His feet and ask Him to bear the burden with you as He has promised? Is there a seed of a desire in you (even a faint glimmer of a desire) to be free from your addiction to substances, or pornography, to your own need for control, to your selfishness, to your physical appetites? The Book of Mormon speaks many times of people who are in spiritual and physical bondage being set free through the mercies and grace of the Lord. One group in particular, a people who followed a King named Noah (who despite his noble name was himself a wicked man), had fallen into some of the worst spiritual depravity imaginable. Because of their disobedience to God, they were overcome by their enemies, physically as well as spiritually, and were in a state of bondage- physically as well as spiritually). But their afflictions humbled them, and they began to seek repentance:

And were it not for the interposition of their all-wise Creator, and this because of their sincere repentance, they must unavoidably remain in bondage until now. But behold, he did deliver them because they did humble themselves before him; and because they cried mightily unto him he did deliver them out of bondage; and thus doth the Lord work with his power in all cases among the children of men, extending the arm of mercy towards them that put their trust in him. -Mosiah 29:19-20

It is my personal testimony that the grace and power of the Atonement of Jesus Christ is sufficient to break every yoke, to loose every band, and to say unto the captive, "You may now go free". I have felt that sweet forgiveness in my life, and every year as I approach the Easter season I remember the precious price that was paid for my redemption. I rejoice in it. It is beautiful to me. It is precious above everything else I have on this Earth, for I now know by personal experience that I am bought with the greatest price that could be paid, and it was Love beyond all measure that made that choice available to me.