“Repentance is real and it works,” Elder Allen D. Haynie of the Seventy taught during the Sunday afternoon session of general conference.
“It is not a fictional experience or the product of a ‘frenzied mind.’ It has the power to lift burdens and replace them with hope. It can lead to a mighty change of heart that results in our having ‘no more disposition to do evil, but to do good continually.’”
Repentance of necessity is not easy, Elder Haynie taught. Things of eternal significance rarely are. But, he said, “the result is worth it.”
Elder Haynie shared a story of when he was a young boy and had been playing with his brothers outside in a large, muddy hole they dug themselves. When it came time for him to go inside his home his grandmother wouldn’t let him in the house, which she had just cleaned, until he had completely washed the mud off himself.
“Standing outside of my house being sprayed off by my grandmother was unpleasant and uncomfortable,” he said. “Being denied the opportunity to return and be with our Father in Heaven because we chose to remain in or dirtied by a mud hole of sin would be eternally tragic."
Speaking of the grand council held before individuals came to earth, Elder Haynie spoke of Heavenly Father’s great plan.
“Because the plan preserved our agency and required that we learn from our own experience and not just from His, He knew we would commit sin,” he said. “He also knew that sin would cause us to become unclean and unable to return to His presence because where He lives is even cleaner than a house cleaned by my grandmother.”
Because Heavenly Father loves His children, He presented a plan that included a Savior — someone who could help all become clean — no matter how dirty they have become. Jesus Christ suffered, both body and spirit, so all could return to their loving Father.
“What does He ask us to do in return?” he asked. “He simply pleads with us to confess our sins and repent so that we will not have to suffer as He did. He invites us to become clean so that we are not left outside of our Father in Heaven’s house.”
Although the avoidance of sin is the preferred pattern in life, it matters not what sins have been committed. Rather, it only matters that individuals turn to the Savior to become clean.
mholman@desnews.com @marianne_holman
