We aren't ever "done".

Mosiah 4

A beautiful explanation of the Atonement, Repentance, Forgiveness, Parenting as pertaining to the gospel of Jesus Christ.

I read today after a disturbing email. Could I forgive someone who hurt my daughter enough to accept him into my home again with full fellowship? Well, if I am sincere in my own repentance and desire eternal blessings I've been promised, then I guess there is only one answer to that question.

I believe in the power of the atonement to heal hurt. I believe it is real when it comes to changing us from the inside out. I know it has worked for me and that I am no more the same person I was 40 years ago than I am the stranger on the street. People change. That is the beauty of the atonement and blessing we have been given. However, make no doubt about it, there are steps that must be made to make sure the change is in the right direction. They take time and diligence in keeping the commandments because you want to please the Lord because you love him. It is trusting in the Lord that the things we read from the scriptures are true. We must be wise, patient, and long-suffering (v6). We must repent of our sins and forsake them. That means never doing them again (v10). We must not have a mind to injure one another, but to live peaceably (v13). It is not a quick fix, and the change is a gradual one.

Oh, and it doesn't end there either. If we want to retain a remission of our sins – that means, if we want the atonement to continue working for us, we will be charitable and impart of our substance to the needy (v26). So once we have repented, we aren't ever really “done”. It is a continued effort. I like the last verse “. . . if you do not watch yourselves, and your thoughts, and your words, and your deeds, and observe the commandments of God, and continue in the faith of what ye have heard concerning the coming of our Lord, even unto the end of your lives, ye must perish. And now, O man, remember, and perish not.”