Under Construction

I've always had a very strong, passionate aversion to construction. It's amazing how often roads are being expanded, or repaved, or...whatever. And by amazing, I mean terribly frustrating.

However, there are some pretty humorous ways to deal with it. Exhibit A:

While this isn't specific to just Utah (just any state with seasons), it's a real struggle. 

But it's funny, because a lot of times I'll claim that I wish there was no construction. And then when I'm driving on terrible roads, I'll say "why haven't they fixed this road yet?!"

Interesting how it seems to be programmed into our human nature to never be satisfied, huh?
And when I was talking to someone about the roads always being worked on (ranting, really), they made the comment that "it's always worth it."
I pondered that for a minute. How true that is, though. It's always so much better afterward than it was before that those few months of inconvenience were worth it.
And I think there's a lot to be learned from the constant constructive process of the towns and neighborhoods we live in.
While it's maybe inconvenient, the process of improvement is always worth it. Whether it's roads, home, family, or self.
Let's be honest, the characteristics and attributes that we possess are nowhere near perfect or where we want them to be. And because of that, we need to, ourselves, always be "under construction."
Before I entered the Missionary Training Center to commence my 18 month mission for the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints, I received an inspirational quote thing that said "New day. New chance. Feel free to change."
With each passing day in the MTC, I realized the power of that quote. What it meant to me was daily repentance. That every day we can choose to change and we don't have to be the person that we were years ago, months ago, or even yesterday. However, sometimes those habits are hard to break and those attitudes and attributes are difficult to change. That's why we need constant repentance. Days, weeks, months, pretty much all of mortality is spent in this pursuit.
Thus, we ourselves need to be constantly under construction. Just like some roads are worked on over, and over, and over again, so do we need to build ourselves up, time after time. We can work on developing an attribute for a while, then move on to different attributes, but unless we continue to go back and re-fortify those attributes, they will get weak. They, like roads, will develop cracks and craters and potholes that will require attention eventually which, without fixing, can lead to serious danger, pain, and and damage.
I testify that everything truly does bear witness of Christ, even road construction that can be found so terribly frustrating. The process of being able to repave our lives and get rid of the imperfections, both big and small, is made possible through the atonement of Jesus Christ which grants us the ability to be infinitely repentant. Just like man can take a ruined road, or even just a patch of land at all, and make it into a beautiful road, bridge, city, or garden, God and Jesus Christ can take any person and make them into something beautiful, perfect, and fit for the kingdom of God. He is the ultimate architect. and Christ is the ultimate engineer.