Daily Repentance
Does repentance make you uncomfortable?
Our Prophet, President Nelson, has urged us to practice daily repentance and I’ve been thinking about it lately. I’ll be honest, it made me uncomfortable when he first started mentioning it a few months ago. It seems hard. I usually put off repentance for a future time when I know that I’ve truly mastered myself and overcome a particular behavior. You can see my perfectionism coming out with this philosophy and I’m learning that my thinking is flawed. Repentance is not a one time event because we are not and cannot be perfect. We as humans want to get things over with and skip to the end because development is a process that requires work and can be tedious. We like to skip the hard, but daily repentance actually makes the whole process ultimately easier because it unlocks the strengthening power of the atonement through Jesus Christ and for each step we take it fortifies us and helps us to improve. Unfortunately, Satan tries to discourage us and wants us to think we are incapable of change so we feel stuck and therefore hopeless. We need to remember that our Savior never gives up on us, so if we mess up we need to just keep striving, repenting, and trying.
A good analogy is if we compare daily repentance to trying to get into shape. You can work really hard to exercise daily, but as soon as you stop, you stop progressing and you actually lose what you’ve gained. It can be the same for daily repentance. This means that we need to recognize that we can’t take a break if we desire sustained growth.
Recently, as I have tried to practice daily repentances, I have developed a greater understanding of who my Savior is and that he truly is my friend. As I have allowed Him to share his atonement with me, I have felt his love in a deep and profound way. I have also come to a greater understanding of him and his will for me and this has opened my heart to personal revelation for which I am very grateful as I try to serve him. I promise that it will be the same for you if you give it a try.
Here is a great scripture you may enjoy from the Book of Mormon.
2Nephi 2:25-27
25 Adam fell that men might be; and men are, that they might have joy.
26 And the Messiah cometh in the fulness of time, that he may redeem the children of men from the fall. And because that they are redeemed from the fall they have become free forever, knowing good from evil; to act for themselves and not to be acted upon, save it be by the punishment of the law at the great and last day, according to the commandments which God hath given.
27 Wherefore, men are free according to the flesh; and all things are given them which are expedient unto man. And they are free to choose liberty and eternal life, through the great Mediator of all men, or to choose captivity and death, according to the captivity and power of the devil; for he seeketh that all men might be miserable like unto himself.
