The Phases of Growth: Creation, Fall, and Atonement

For every aspect of human character, we must pass through 3 phases of growth: Creation, Fall, and Atonement. Each phase is essential to our progression:

• Creation: We learn of a true principle, and the seed of belief plants in our hearts. We learn of honesty and think it is good to be honest. We learn of meekness and think it is good to reject pride. We learn of hard work and think it is good to avoid laziness.
• Fall: Life is hard, and we fail to live up to our ideals. We might give up to some degree and begin to doubt the validity of the ideals we *originally* allowed to be planted in our hearts. Many in this phase try to unsuccessfully change the true principles to something untrue to lessen feelings of guilt and shame.
• Atonement: We exit the Fall when we humble ourselves. We re-accept the validity of the true principles, but this time we speak from experience. We have passed our stress test. We vow to pass any future stress tests. We accept ourselves as weak and reliant on the Atonement of Jesus Christ to cleanse us of our faults and weaknesses and to enable us to do better next time.

You can self-assess where you are in your growth using the following questions:

• Creation: You look at people in the Fall phase and think, “How could they?”
• Fall: You look at people in the Creation phase and think, “How naive! How prudish! How weak! How judgmental!”
• Atonement: You look at people in all phases as beloved brothers and sisters going through the same mortal experience. You feel a non-judgmental allowance for others to progress at their own pace, however slow or unlikely it may currently appear. You offer only encouragement and love, without sacrificing the validity of true principles.

Maturity in any true principle requires correctly understanding and accepting its truth, living through personal failure associated with the principle, and enduring to the end with hope in Christ. The hope is that through Him our failures will be transformed into strengths that persist unendingly.

The next time you think of character development, watch how framing it in the context of Creation, Fall, and Atonement expands your mind and heart with compassion for others in a way that emulates the love that Jesus Christ feels for each of us.

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PS: These ideas came to mind after listening to this excellent podcast. Those who experience faith crises are passing through the Fall phase of growth. The Fall phase is as vital to growth as Creation and Atonement.