FHE: I Can Repent When I Make a Mistake

Rob taught this lesson, and it was the best one I’ve ever seen on repentance. First he told a story about a child that was invited to a super delicious dinner by his mom and dad. (Rob is a great story teller, but I’ll do my best to convey the gist of it here.) When he came to dinner his mom said, “if you want to have dinner, you need to wash your hands.” The boy said, “I don’t want to wash my hands. They’re not that dirty.” The mom told him that even if they are a little dirty, he still needs to wash them. She said, “Please wash them. I have this dinner ready for you, and I will be sad to see you miss out on your favorite dinner.”

…So, what would you do if this happened to you?

Our Heavenly Father has promised us a joyful life with Him if we will just repent when we make a mistake. Some things will take more time to resolve than others, but in the end the reward will be worth the effort.

Then we went through each scripture on these visual aids to show the steps of repentance. We all took turns reading the scriptures out loud and then discussing what they mean.

Recognize our sins Alma 42: 29
Feel sorrow for our sins Doctrine & Covenants 20:37
Forsake our sins D&C 58:43
Confess our sins D&C 61:2
Make restitution Ezekiel 33: 15-16
Forgive others 3 Nephi 13:14-15
Continue to keep the commandments D&C 1:32

I think the lesson itself is good, but what really made it great was the spirit of love that we felt as we discussed how much our Heavenly Father wants to give us blessings. But to get those blessings, he asks us to be clean.

It seems like a pretty sweet deal to me!