Successful Repentance

So...today's lesson in Relief Society was on repentance. In the middle of a somewhat boring rendition of the lesson with no participation, a lady raised her hand from the back of the room and asked, "How can we have the desire to sin no more? I have repented in the past and had no desire to sin, then as time goes on and circumstances change, I begin to entertain the thought of rationalizing the sin again."

Then, she hung her head and tearfully asked, "What do I do?"

Well, as you can guess, the class collectively turned in their seats and raised their hands. Each sister, in one form or another, offered her own testimony, advice, comfort, and love to that sister. It was truly a remarkable occurrence. What a sweet ward! What a sweet moment!

I offer this up, not to tell of that moment, but to tell you what one sister said that seemed quite profound. She mentioned listening to the radio while coming home from work one day. There was a man speaking on the topic of what three things successful men have in common. She remembered thinking that she didn't like listening to that kind of talk, but yet, did not change the station. Next, the man proceeded to list those three things. The first thing on the list was that when these men got in their cars, they had DVD's of motivational speeches playing. Now this sister hated motivational speakers even more that to topic of successful people...and just about changed the channel, but before she could reach for the dial, the question was asked, "Why would men who were already motivated to succeed constantly surrounding themselves with more motivational tapes?"

Curious as to the answer, the sister withdrew her hand and waited to hear the response. Its simple answer came: "Because motivation doesn't last forever."

As the sister pondered that answer, it hit her hard. That is why we read the scriptures over and over again. That is why we pray over and over again. That is why we go to church over and over again. That is why we take the sacrament over and over again. We may have a testimony now; we may feel the spirit now; we may have the desire to sin no more now, but those feelings do not last. We must constantly feed our testimony. We must constantly repent. We must constantly do those things to keep the spirit in our lives so that we can always have a testimony, feel the spirit, and desire to sin no more.

This is nothing new. You all know it, but in the context of the story she told, it made all the sense in the world. Perfection is a lifetime process and enduring to the end means we read scriptures every day, pray every day, repent every day, and re-covenant every Sunday....because those righteous feelings don't last forever.

May it ever be so with my posterity and me.