From his book, ‘Following Christ’ Stephen E. Robinson wrote:
“I once asked a close friend why she had left the church as a teenager to return only after many years, and I discovered that she had been deceived by a spiritual sadist. “I remember sitting in my Laurel class,” she said, “and the teacher was telling us how good and how pure we had to be to go to the celestial kingdom. She taught us how hard it would be to repent if we made a mistake, and even if we did repent we could never have the same blessings as before. Of course, by then I had already made my mistakes. Then she made a special point of telling us that only a special few could find the strait and narrow way, and when I looked around the room and saw my competition, all of those goody-goodies, I knew I didn’t have a chance of being one of the few. Never kiss boys? Never listen to rock music? Never fight with my mother? Never have an unclean thought? I knew right then that I didn’t have a snowball’s chance, so I just gave up and quit coming.”
When I asked her why she had come back to the Church after more than a decade, she answered, “This is where the light is, and I just couldn’t stand the dark anymore. At first all I knew was that I had to get out of the dark, but as I moved closer and closer to the light, I finally realized that my teacher hadn’t told the truth. There is room for me in the kingdom of God, and I don’t have to compete with goodie-goodies to get there. I’m not competing with anyone but myself. I have repented; I’ve already found the strait and narrow way, and as long as I’m just a little better this month than I was last month, just a little nicer, a little kinder, a little more compassionate [or genuinely seek to be (Doctrine and Covenants 46:9)]—in his name and for his sake—then I win it all.” ~Stephen E. Robinson [deceased], (Believing Christ (Salt Lake City: Deseret Book, 1992), 436-440 Dwarsligger® version.
Personal note from Kent: There are, perhaps, many ways some can relate to the above. For me, some ways. . . “I was baptized at age 18, without a testimony. At age 15, I took the discussions and knew the Church was true , but since I had been confirmed in another mainline church in Canada earlier at that age, my parents denied me permission to join this (new to me) religion. Over the next three years, my proximity to an LDS congregation was problematic and I drifted, lost my testimony. . . . yet I knew it was the faith in which I one day wanted to raise my future family. At age 18 (now I could drive. . . I attend meetings regularly). I again approached my Dad with the same request. He granted his permission. While taking the discussions again, I was praying for a witness of the Book of Mormon and the teachings I had once known were true. The Spirit witnessed to me, “have faith and be baptized. . . live the covenants of baptism, pray and read regularly from the Book of Mormon, and your testimony will return”. . . . and it so happened! kdm
