I Am Repenting.

Repentance: is much more than just acknowledging wrongdoings. It is a change of mind and heart that gives you a fresh view about God, about yourself, and about the world. It includes turning away from sin and turning to God for forgiveness. It is motivated by love for God and the sincere desire to obey His commandments. (Ref from True to the Faith)

I've been thinking a lot about repentance lately. When I was a kid I remember thinking of repentance as a big scary word - something bad that we needed to be afraid of.
Now as an adult, repentance is my best friend. Repentance is the sweetest thing in the world.
There have been times on my mission where I have felt myself crave repentance. Not because I've done anything really wrong - but because I hadn't been doing something as right, good, exact, fully, as I could.
That relief. That fresh view about myself, my Heavenly Father, and the world - tastes so so good.
Repentance is healing. It is healing our soul from the disease of sin.

Elder Richard G Scott once said:

"If one of you has seriously sinned, repent—now. It is not good to violate the commandments of the Lord. It is worse to do nothing about it. Sin is like cancer in the body. It will never heal itself. It will become progressively worse unless cured through the medicine of repentance." (Dont Face the World Alone)

I love that. Our Savior Jesus Christ has given us the cure; He has provided us the medicine. It is our decision whether we are going to take it or not. We can be healed. We can be clean. It is our decision.

How do we gain that?

The Book of Mormon teaches the doctrine of Christ so simply.

In 3 Nephi 9:13 Christ asks "will ye not now return unto me, and repent of your sins, and be converted, that I may heal you?"

Earlier in 2 Nephi 31 the Savior explains perfectly and simply that "returning to Him" means having faith in Him, repenting, being baptized in His name by somebody who holds His authority, receiving the gift of the Holy Ghost, and enduring to the end.

verse 11 states: And the Father said: Repent ye, repent ye, and be baptized in the name of my Beloved Son.

and verse 12: And also, the voice of the Son came unto me saying: he that is baptized in my name, to him will the Father give the Holy Ghost, like unto me: wherefore, follow me and do the things which ye have seen me do

So what does that mean for those that have already been baptized by somebody who holds the authority of God?

We must continue to grow and cultivate our faith in Jesus Christ, repent till the end, renew our baptismal covenants in partaking of the sacrament, be worthy and follow the promptings of the Holy Ghost, progress till the end, and help others take these steps as well.

That is where healing comes from. That is where peace comes from. That is the way that He has shown us to return to live with our Heavenly Father and our families forever.

His invitation is to heal us. Our decision is whether we will let Him.

Repentance is changing to be more like Him. When we live more like Him, we are happier. Period.

So this post is about repentance. It is about my repentance. How I am now repenting for my lack of attention to my own blog. I am forgetting those weeks of neglect and being a better representative of my Savior Jesus Christ.

Posts to come. Count on it. It wouldn't be lasting repentance if I went back to my heathen non-posting ways.