Let’s Talk - About Repentance

As a Bishop I find it interesting to see how little we understand of the repentance process. Let me illustrate. Quite often when there is a special even coming up - like a temple dedication, a friends wedding or something that has a imposed date; I will see a large number of young men and women come to my office and ask for a recommend.

In the process of asking the standard temple recommend questions it becomes apparent that the individual has committed a serious sin in the eyes of the Lord. However; the response is something like this. Bishop; I did this or that and I would like to confess so that I can attend the temple dedication next week. The follow up question from me is usually I am so glad that you are here and are willing to take the steps necessary to get this burden out of your life. May I ask when was the last time that you did this or that to which you are confessing. The answer is surprisingly something like yesterday, or this past week. With further questioning I may ask and how long has this been going on. To which the response is for a few months; sometimes even longer.

Now don’t get me wrong; I am so grateful that they are trying to do what is right, to turn themselves around and get on the right path. But I will have to admit that I am a little unaware of exactly how to answer them. I do not quite know where to begin; because some where along the way they either have missed the seriousness of that which they have done; or they do not grasp what they need to do in order to fully repent.

I think that we live in a society of instant messages, quick fixes, fast food, media on demand; such that we expect a confession to absolve our short comings as simply as going through a drive in window.

so what really are the steps in repentance?

What does it mean to confess your sins? Who do we need to confess them to? Serious sins to the Bishop as well as the Lord.

What part does confession play in the process? The part of confession should be in not only telling the Lord and the Bishop what we have done; but also in expressing how we have sinned. How we have been prideful and put ourselves above the laws of God. Confession and acknowledgment of the awful state that we find ourselves in. I think that true confess may be much more than just an expression of the words, “ My girlfriend and I were touching each other in appropriately the other night”. It may need to be deeper than that, true confession I suppose acknowledges “How doing so broke the respect that I should have had for her as a daughter or God”, the acknowledgement that “I have shared parts of my soul, in an intimate way with someone that I should not have at this point”.

In other words I do not think that a true confession cannot take place until we acknowledge the gravity of that which we have done. Without that understanding they are just words. How can we confess wrong doing for something that we do not understand why it is wrong?

so maybe as part of our repentance process we need to take a little more time and try to understand why what we have done is wrong in the eyes of the Lord.

Because members of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints believe that “the spirit and the body are the soul of man” (Doctrine and Covenants 88:15), “One cannot exploit the body without damaging the spirit because these two are inseparably connected in every man, woman and child,” Elder Holland said.

Let’s Talk - Oral Sex

Why is it so bad? Sharing part of your heart, and soul with someone
Story of young man - sowed his wild oats for a few years, repents, gets married in the temple, has 2 beautiful daughters - then a son who is born with series problems - he has aids, come to find out the mom does too, and the 2 little girls. Repentance can be complete however there may still be consequences.