From her book, “The Holiness of Everyday Life”, Joan B. Mac Donald shared:
In this life many things happen in which we play a shameful part. Those of us who are wrong forgive ourselves and go on. The weak wallow in their shame and allow it to devour them. There is no one of us without sin, child. Three ought to be some comfort in that. . . . change is an easy thing to decide and a difficult thing to do. It is the day-to-day struggle of it that defeats people. Do not despair if old ways look good to you. Despair only if you fall into them too often. ~Karleen Koen
What is repentance, and what does it have to do with the average, active, commandment-keeping Latter-day Saint? And more in keeping with the theme of this book, how does repentance relate to the daily experiences of our daily lives?
In the Church we speak of the process of repentance as involving four essential steps: 1. Recognize wrong doing (sin). 2. Experience Godly sorrow for sin. 3. Ask for forgiveness and, where possible, make restitution. 4.Forsake the sin and never repeat it.
Recognizing Wrongdoing (Sin): The speakers at stake conference made their mistakes at step one. So do most of us. When we think of sin, we usually think of “biggies”: adultery, dishonesty, child abuse, inactivity, breaking the Word of Wisdom, and so on. There are problems with that way of thinking about sin. The first problem is that many of us use sins to excuse ourselves from thinking seriously about our own sins; these are sins somebody else commits. The second problem is that when we think of sin in that way, we narrow our perception of sins to actions only; we completely overlook the role of thoughts, attitude. and motivations. Yet the scriptures make clear that, even in the midst of doing right we can be wrong.
. . . . The Apostle Paul wrote of the last days, “Men shall be lovers of their own selves, covetous, boasters, proud, blasphemers, disobedient to parents, unfaithful, unholy, without natural affection, unthankful, unholy, without natural affection, truce breakers, false accusers, despisers of those that are good, traitors, heady, high minded, lovers of pleasures more than lovers of God.” (2 Timothy 3:2-4.)
The sins of action listed here are bragging, blaspheming, disobedience, dishonesty and slander. The sins of being are selfishness, envy, pride, ingratitude, conceit, and *hedonism.
Who among us can honestly say we are free from selfishness, envy, pride or conceit? More disturbing still, our actions are sometimes motivated by sins of being, by envy, conceit, competitiveness, or self-righteousness. But does motivation matter? And if so, how much? . . .
An interesting commentary on the significance of motivation in right and wrongdoing is seen in the beliefs about heaven held by the followers of Emanuel Swedenborg. Swedenborg describes an afterlife remarkably similar to our own understanding, complete with three degrees of glory: a telestial kingdom, a terrestrial kingdom, and a celestial kingdom. Entrance to any of these kingdoms, he says, is not dependent upon good works or compliance with the performance of ordinances. It s assumed that all who enter any of the three kingdoms have participated in required ordinances and spent their lives in good works, for these are the three levels of heaven. The determining factor for an individual’s final destination is not the quality or quantity of good works performed but rather the motivation behind them. Those going to the telestial kingdom are those whose good deeds are motivated by a sense of duty; those going to the terrestrial kingdom are those motivated by a love for God. Sense of duty, love of Truth, and love for God—all three of these motivations are righteous. If I could get to the point in my own life where all of my actions were motivated by one of these three, I would have come a long way in my own spiritual progression. The sins Paul lists in 2 Timothy, envy, pride, ingratitude, conceit, love of pleasure are just a few or the “sins of being/motivation” human beings are prone to. We could add selfishness, laziness, fearfulness, lust, and greed. It would require an entire book to discuss each one of these. I have chosen three—pride, fear and laziness—that I would like to discuss to help us begin to overcome these problems and to illustrate that repentance is a complex and lifelong effort.
~~~Joan A. MacDonald, The Holiness of Everyday Life, Deseret Book Company, Salt Lake City, 1995) p.83-86
. . . . * Hedonism is a philosophy that prioritizes pleasure and the avoidance of pain. It can refer to a way of life, a theory in ethics, or a psychological theory.
