Laura Fernsten

So I had to give a talk at church today, and for record purposes (and if you get bored) I am posting my talk! Enjoy..

“Repent . . . That I May Heal You”   Elder Neil L. Andersen

We all go through changes in life, hopefully growing, reflecting and trying to make ourselves better. Oftentimes, we need to retool, refine, and remold ourselves. Today,   I would like to share a story with you about refinement and a cleansing process.

The Potter & The Cup
I was a little clump of red clay. The master took me and rolled me and pounded me and I yelled out, “Don’t do that. I don’t like that. Leave me alone!” But he only smiled and gently said, “Not yet.” Then wham, I was put on a spinning wheel and suddenly I was spun round and round. “Stop! I am getting dizzy! I am going to be sick.”

But the Master only nodded and quietly said, “Not yet!”

He spun and poked me and prodded and bent me out of shape to suit himself and then he put me in the oven. I never felt such heat. I screamed and yelled and pounded at the door.

“Help, get me out of here!”  When I thought I could not bear it another minute, the door opened. He carefully took me out and put me on the shelf, and I began to cool.

Oh, that felt so good! “Ah, this is much better”, I thought! But, after I cooled, he picked me up and he brushed and painted me all over. The fumes were horrible. “Oh, please stop it! I cried. He only shook his head and said, “Not yet…”

Then suddenly, he put me back in the oven. Only it was not like the first time. This time it was twice as hot and I just knew I would suffocate. I begged …I pleaded….I screamed…I cried… I was convinced I would never make it. I was ready to give up and just then the door opened and he gently took me out and again placed me on the shelf, where I cooled and waited and waited, wondering, “What’s he going to do to me next?”

An hour later, he handed me a mirror and said, “look at yourself.”

And I did…I said, “that’s not me, that couldn’t be me. It’s beautiful. I’m beautiful!”

Quietly, he spoke, “ I want you to remember, then, “he said, “I know it hurt to be rolled and pounded and patted, but I if I had just left you alone, you’d have dried up. I know it made you dizzy to spin around on the wheel, but if I had stopped, you would have crumbled.

“I know it hurt and it was hot and disagreeable in the oven, but if I hadn’t put you there, you would have cracked. I know fumes were bad when I brushed and painted you all over, but if I hadn’t done that, you never would have hardened. You would not have had any color in your life.

“And if I hadn’t put you back in that second oven, you wouldn’t have survived for long because the hardness would not have held. Now you are a finished product. Now you are what I had in mind when I first began with you.

God knows what he is doing for each of us. He is the potter, and we are his clay. He will mold us and makes us, and exposes us to just enough pressure so that we may be made into a flawless piece of work to fulfill his will.  So when life seems hard, and you are being pounded and patted and pushed almost beyond endurance, when your world seems to be spinning out of control, when you feel like you are in a fiery furnace of trials, when life seems to “stink”, try this;  Think of this story and have a little talk with the Potter!

Just as the piece of clay had to be refined by the potter in the story of the tea cup, we too need to learn to refine ourselves and undergo difficult changes along with the help of  the Master, our Savior. This process is called, “Repentance.”

In his talk,  “Repent….That I May Heal You,” Elder Neil L. Anderson states,  The invitation to repent is rarely a voice of chastisement, but rather a loving appeal to turn around and “re-turn” to God. During his ministry on earth, Jesus performed many miracles. But perhaps, his greatest miracle was the healing of people’s souls—the forgiveness of sin. Jesus still offers the miracle of sincere repentance today. It is central to the plan of salvation.

Repentance is defined as “… one of the first principles of the gospel and is essential to our temporal and eternal happiness. It is much more than just acknowledging wrongdoings. It is a change of mind and heart that gives us a fresh view about God, about ourselves, and about the world. It includes turning away from sin and turning to God for forgiveness. It is motivated by love for God and the sincere desire to obey His commandments

When we recognize our need to repent,   through the power of Christ’s atonement, our hearts can be changed so that we want to choose good over evil. The Lord will bless us with joy, with feelings of cleanliness and self-worth, and with increased faith in him.

I think that as immortal and imperfect human beings, we sometimes think we are not capable of changing.  We can rationalize repentance and feel that change is just too hard, that our weaknesses are either too small or too great to change or we’re too young to begin.

In his talk, Brother Anderson acknowledges this problem.
“At this very moment, someone is saying, “Brother Andersen, you don’t understand. You can’t feel what I have felt. It is too difficult to change.” You are correct; I don’t fully understand. But there is One who does. He knows. He has felt your pain. He has declared, “I have graven thee upon the palms of my hands.”²² The Savior is there, reaching out to each of us, bidding us: “Come unto me.”²³ We can repent. We can!”

I think it is important to realize that at some time in our lives, all of us discover that WE cannot change for the better ourselves. Without the help of a power greater than our own, we find ourselves continually returning to our selfish and unloving ways. But the Lord does not expect us to repent and change by ourselves. He stands ready to bless us with his unbounded love and grace.

-I would like you to Imagine the Cristus statue, with arms beckoning for you to come to him
“Behold, [my arms] of mercy [are] extended towards you, and whosoever will come, him will I receive; and blessed are those who come unto me.”¹ The scriptures speak of His arms being open,² extended,³ stretched out,⁴ and encircling.⁵ They are described as mighty⁶ and holy,⁷ arms of mercy,⁸ arms of safety,⁹ arms of love,¹⁰ . 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.”¹²

-Heavenly Father wants us to come back to him, always there with open arms, never rejecting us
- He wants us to repent and “re-turn” to Him

Alma the younger is a wonderful example of this principle of forgiveness:As we all know, Alma the younger and the four sons of Mosiah sought to destroy the church. An angel appeared and commanded them to cease their evil course.

In Mosiah 27:19-20 we read:

And now Alma and those that were with him fell to the earth, for great was their astonishment; for with their own eyes they had beheld an angel of the Lord; and his voice was as a thunder, which shook the earth; and they knew that were nothing save the power of God that could shake the earth and cause it to tremble as though it would part asunder.

And now the astonishment of Alma was so great that he became dumb, that he could not open his mouth; yeah and he became weak, even that he could not move his hands; therefore he was taken by those that were with him, and carried helpless, even until he was laid before his father.”

I think if we were all in Alma’s shoes and unable to talk or move for 3 days, we would certainly have a change of heart and reflect on repentance.  As dramatic as his condition was, the better part of his example is in how Alma repented.

He realized his wrongdoings:

Alma 36: 13-14

“Yea, I did remember all my sins and inequities, for which I was tormented with the pains of hell; yea, I saw that I had rebelled against my God, and I had not kept his holy commandments.

Yea, and I had murdered many of his children, or rather led them away to destruction; yea and in fine so great had been my inequities, that the very presence of my God did rack my soul with inexpressible horror.”

Once Alma realized and felt sorry for his sins, the darkness began to go away as he remembered his father prophesizing about the coming of Jesus Christ to atone for the sins of the world. As his mind caught hold of this thought, Alma began crying out to the Lord.  Alma then explained, “ that through the mercies of God, his soul was filled with joy exceeding as was my pain!” He further declared that  “ there can be nothing so exquisite and sweet as was my joy!”

This mighty change turned into action as we read in Alma 36:24

Yea, and from that time even until now, I have labored without ceasing, that I might bring souls unto repentance; that I might bring them to taste the of the exceeding joy of which I did taste; that they might be also born of God. And be filled with the Holy Ghost.”

The process of repenting is not an easy one. The experience of young Alma is a frightening testament of that. Wrongs must be made right, and there is no painless way to accomplish that.  But, it must be done, and like Alma, we can all thank our Heavenly Father that it can be done!

CONCLUSION

President Kimball stated, “That when most of us think of repentance, we tend to narrow our vision and view it only as good for our roommates, parents, our friends, –anyone and everyone except ourselves. Similarly there is a prevalent, perhaps subconscious, feeling that the Lord designed repentance only for those who commit murder or adultery or horrible crimes. This is of course, not so. If we are humble and desirous of living the gospel, we will come to think of repentance as applying to everything we do in life, whether it be spiritual or temporal in nature.

“Repentance is for every soul who has not yet reached perfection.”

To repent, we must repent each day, asking the Lord to change our hearts so that we no longer desire to break his commandments. The invitation is rarely a voice if chastisement, but rather a loving appeal to turn around and “re-turn” to God.  As we hearken to the counsel of ancient and modern prophets and change our lives through repentance, the atoning sacrifice of Jesus Christ becomes a reality in our lives, our sins are forgiven, and joy fills our hearts!

Just as the piece of clay had to be molded, placed in a fire and refined, so do all of us.