What is Repentance?

What is repentance?  The scriptures say again and again that if you do not repent, you can not inherit eternal life.  If it is so darn important, then what in the world is repentance in the first place?

We are each children of our Heavenly Father.  As such we have incredible potential of what we can become.  God has a vision for each of us to become something far superior than we can even comprehend in ourselves.  His intention is for us to become like Him,  possessing all of His divine qualities and virtues (Matthew 5:48).

The problem is that each of us are human beings, and thus we all sin and fall short of inheriting eternal life (Romans 3:23). Nothing unclean can dwell in God's presence, and sin makes us unclean, so therefore, because all of us have sinned, no one can live with God again...Right?

Well, fortunately, because God foresaw that each of us would sin, and because he wanted each of us to return to Him, He provided a way for us to become clean and forgiven.  That way is through His Son, Jesus Christ.  God sent His Only Begotten Son to pay the penalty for each of our sins, so that we could return back to Him (John 3:16). 

Although God in His great mercy and love sent His Only Son to suffer, bleed, and die for us, so that we could receive mercy, it still requires effort on our part to receive Christ's Atoning sacrifice.  This "effort" is called repentance -- repentance is the means by which we are reconciled to God through Christ.  Because Christ felt our pains, and understands us personally, when we repent, He is able to plead with the Father:

"Father, behold the sufferings and death of him who did no sin, in whom thou wast well pleased; behold the blood of thy Son which was shed, the blood of him whom thou gavest that thyself might be glorified; Wherefore, Father, spare these my brethren that believe on my name, that they may come unto me and have everlasting life."  (D&C 45:3-5).

You're on probation!

I want to share some of the things I've learned about repentence and forgiveness lately.  But first, in this post, I want to set the stage for it.

First of all, personally, what I love about the Book of Mormon, is that it explains that there really is a purpose to our lives here on earth, and we are not simply here just to be born, live, get an education, work, have children, etc. and then die.  This life has purpose and it has meaning.  In the book of Alma in the Book of Mormon, Amulek taught "And thus we see, that there was a time granted unto man to repent, yea, a probationary time, a time to repent and serve God." (Alma 42:4; see also Alma 34:32 and 2 Nephi 2:21)

Basically what that means is that God granted us this time in mortal life as a time to repent so that we can be prepared to live in His presence after this life. So if the biggest purpose of this mortal life is to repent, then don't you think that it is probably pretty important to know first of all what repentance is, and then how to repent?  I would think so.  I'll write more about the "what" and "how" of repentance in my next posts.  Stay tuned!

"Gratitude is the Attitude"

My dad has a little desk-plaque that says on it "gratitude is the attitude".  I definitely agree with that quote, and in fact the Lord does too.  To the Prophet Joseph Smith, He revealed "And he who receiveth all things with thankfulness shall be made glorious; and the things of this earth shall be added unto him, even an hundred  fold, yea, more." (Doctrine and Covenants: 78:19)

When the Lord says "all things", how much is "all"? Does He really want us to be grateful for even the "negative" things that happen to us? The short answer, yes!

What I realized the other day is that we always hear about being grateful for the things we have been given (when I say "things" I don't just mean material possessions), instead of pouting about what you haven't been given. That's kind of like "the cup is half-full" analogy.  But the Lord never intended us to have a half-full cup, but a cup that "runneth over" (Psalms 23:5) .  So what I learned is that instead of just thanking Him for everything we have, it is equally as important or even more important to thank Him for everything you don't have as well!  Think about it, can you imagine how spoiled rotten we would be if He gave us everything we ever wanted or if He was a "push-over"?  He gives and withholds things from us for our benefit (2 Nephi 26:24), even when we really want something, because He knows what's best for us better than we do.  In reality, there is really no such thing as God giving a "curse" because any "curse" He gives is still for our benefit! Try this principle of thanking the Lord for everything you have AND don't have.  It can be pretty fun and puts you in a good mood :)