We have two well-known versions of salvation history. The first is the Plan of Salvation–the council in heaven, creation and the Fall, Redemption, the Celestial Kingdom. The second is the cycles that occur within the world, the cycle of revelation and apostasy that lead to different dispensations, with the dispensation of the meridian of times and the dispensation of the last days being particularly notable.

We know pretty well that the big picture of the Plan of Salvation also applies to us personally. We know from the Temple, where that story is explicitly made our personal story.

But the cycles of revelation and apostasy and dispensations also matter to us personally.

Times of apostasy and times of restoration are two opposite poles of human existence.

-thus Elder Alvin Dyer.

Scriptures, the voices whispering from the dust, are the remnants of prior dispensations that tie the dispensations together. What ties our personal dispensations together? Old journals, old music we used to listen to, visits to where we used to live, reunions with old friends? Trips down memory lane are not just nostalgia. They are potentially spiritual exercises.

Have we had a personal meridian of time, where the Savior entered our mortal life? If so, where is our Restoration? The recommitment, the second flush of enthusiasm, the resurge of revelation, seems just as important in salvation history as the first.

Do we see our lives as building towards the End?

Be prepared for the days to come, in which the Son of Man shall come down in heaven, clothed in the brightness of his glory.

-D&C 65:5