Like faith, repentance is a universal
principle, applying to all aspects of our lives. Like faith, it is a living
force and its power can be increased by use. Like faith, it is a continuing and
enduring quality of righteousness. Today’s repentance covers only the errors of
our yeserdays. If we repeat these same mistakes tomorrow, our repentance was
not real or valid. But as we move up the scale of development into new and more
complex conditions, there is the risk of other different mistakes, and we must
never allow ourselves to reach a spiritual state wherein repentance is
impossible. But while faith and repentance sustain and continually refresh and
strengthen each other, they are not parallel. There always must be faith before
repentance can follow.
To the Mormons, repentance is much more
inclusive and extensive than a mere expression of regret. It is a process with
many vital phases. We do not repentant unconsciously. We need to know the
purpose of repentance. We need to be able to recognize the mistake we have made
and make some appraisal of its consequences. This should lead to a true sense
of sorrow for our fault, strong enough to humble us, to make us realize that it
represents a weakness that we must overcome, and lead us to ask God to forgive
us.
But even if God does forgive, the problem of
turning a negative experience to our advantage still remains with us. But an
exercise of will sustained by faith, we must determine to move again in the
right direction, and in order to make up for what we lost by our mistake we
must move more surely and more rapidly. Sorry and determination, however,
humbling, are not enough. To make our repentance effective, we must add to it a
definite plan of action to be entered into and maintained in the face of ever
temptation.
Usually when we make mistakes of which we should
repent, we involve other as well as ourselves, often injuring them. Our repentance
cannot be complete unless we ask for their forgiveness as we ask for God’s and
make full restitution if that is possible.
True repentance, then, is one of the most
vital keys to growth. It is effective only when we can permanently cast off the
error, which, if persisted in, would weaken or destroy us. Having done this we
must put in its place a truth is made stronger as the error fades, and thus we
move toward a better life. (Wallace F. Bennett, Why I am a Mormon [3d ed.; Salt Lake City: Deseret Book Company,
1964], 220-21)