Repent...That I May Heal You"

My thoughts on Elder Andersen's talk "Repent...That I May Heal You"

This talk is a rainbow of highlighter color.

I had the opportunity to talk in our Visiting Teaching Breakfast yesterday and about the Lord touching each of us through others. I have felt his loving arms around me because of acts of service that others have given to me (us). That love is real.

"We have each felt to some extent these spiritual arms around us. We have felt His forgiveness, His love and comfort. The Lord has said, “I am he [who] comforteth you.”

"When we sin, we turn away from God. When we repent, we turn back toward God."

I had a teacher put a line on the chalk board once and at one end wrote "Satan" and at the other wrote "Christ". She then took a little person and put him on the line near the end by Satan but facing Christ. She took another person and put him on the line almost on top of Christ but facing Satan. She then told us that it doesn't matter where you on on the line of righteousness, it matters what way you are facing. I've continued to think about that line often. Not where am I but what way am I facing.

"The invitation to repent is rarely a voice of chastisement but rather a loving appeal to turn around and to “re-turn” toward God. It is the beckoning of a loving Father and His Only Begotten Son to be more than we are, to reach up to a higher way of life, to change, and to feel the happiness of keeping the commandments."

And I think until we see it as a voice of love and a call to return we will not be humbled enough to repent, or our repentance will not be a true and complete repentance.

We often think that we have to be whole before we can return. That is as crazy as me thinking I have to be cancer free before I go back and visit my doctor.

"Jesus declares, “Will ye not now return unto me, and repent of your sins, and be converted, that I may heal you?”"

"How do we decide where our repentance should be focused? When a loved one or friend suggests things we need to change, the natural man in us sometimes pops up his head and responds, “Oh, you think I should change? Well, let me tell you about some of your problems.” A better approach is to humbly petition the Lord: “Father, what wouldst Thou have me do?” The answers come. We feel the changes we need to make. The Lord tells us in our mind and in our heart."

But how to humbly bend our knee and say those words. And more importantly how do I let my children know? I know pray that they can find their own way to humbly petition the Lord.

I've struggled with knowing if I'm truly moving forward and these words are great words of comfort:
"Sometimes in our repentance, in our daily efforts to become more Christlike, we find ourselves repeatedly struggling with the same difficulties. As if we were climbing a tree-covered mountain, at times we don’t see our progress until we get closer to the top and look back from the high ridges. Don’t be discouraged. If you are striving and working to repent, you are in the process of repenting."

Remember it is the way you are facing not where on the road.

Then there is this bit of hope:
"Repentance not only changes us, but it also blesses our families and those we love. With our righteous repentance, in the timetable of the Lord, the lengthened-out arms of the Savior will not only encircle us but will also extend into the lives of our children and posterity. Repentance always means that there is greater happiness ahead."

My prayer is that somewhere along the line my children are reaping the benefit of those members of my family who have turned to the Savior and who have repented. I also hope that I can call upon those blessings for myself and for my children. We need all we can get right now.

The Lord has called us to repent and we need to head that call. As Lucy from Peanuts fame says, "The Doctor is in." We just need to set up and appointment (tonight would be just fine) and let him exam our heart and heal us. It may take some time, but it will be worth it.