mormon girl at a crossroads trying to find her way back..?

when you repent – you ask God to forgive you for the things you have done. He is all-forgiving and loving. we however, being not so near perfect, can have a harder time. It is important that you learn to also forgive yourself. when you do, you will forget your past life and it will no longer be a temptation or a source of such guilt that it can cause you to allow satan’s influence in your decisions. and remember – this life is about progression – not perfection. just keep moving forward.

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Perfection Pending by Russell M Nelson is a book I just started reading. Now as I just started reading it I cannot quote anything out of it yet, but it does bring to mind two things to me. The first is that we should not expect to be perfect even though we need to try. The second is we need to forgive ourselves just like the Lord forgives us and try again, and again, and again if that’s what it takes. So true is the fact we cannot undo or really even forget our past sins. We can however receive forgiveness for them. Yes its hard when you think of the temporary pleasure some of those sins may have given you, but you must remember also the heartache and problems those same sins had on you. Pleasure does not always lead to happiness. But happiness is a pleasure you cannot get from sin. Good luck and do that which you know is right.

Cowboys have a saying, when you get bucked off you need to get right back on. There is wisdom in that age old saying. If you don’t get right back on you may be scared to get back on later. There is also another reason, the horse, if you don’t get right back on knows he won by dumping you and will almost always try again, maybe even harder the next time. The devil knows the same thing and it applies to us as well. If you don’t repent and try right away again the devil knows he has you on the run and even if you try again later it will be that much harder to return to the church and the right way of life than it would have been if you had just returned right away.

Once you are baptized, you no longer need to ask forgiveness for sins you committed before baptism, because baptism made you clean. Pray instead for strength and guidance not to go back to old sins. Avoid people and situations such as led to your old problems. Yes, it is the devil trying to depress you and lead you away from God again. Go back to church, read the scriptures, pray, serve in the church, all the things you have been taught. Talk to your bishop for strength, repentance, anything. Remember that partaking of the sacrament is a weekly renewal of your baptismal covenants. Make friends who will help you live the standards of the church. Your heart is in the right place; do not let anyone or anything lead you away from the right path.

First of all stop the tendency or impulse to COMPARE yourself with anything or anyone else. The Lord loves you, forgives you and is there for you in-spite of your (our) flaws & imperfections. HE doesn’t dwell on past mistakes nor does He wish for you to perpetuate any guilt for past mistakes. THAT is your doing and it can be your undoing if you don’t get a grip of it and let it go. You can never fully move on and forward if you continue to let the past drag you back and down. What is done is done and what is important is what lies before you.

Trust me when I tell you this – every other person you know whether at church or not, is JUST as imperfect and has had just as many experiences with sin and shortcomings as you & I have. We sometimes fail to realize that truth because everyone at church is ‘at their best’ – they/we come to church with our best attire our best attitudes, our happiest faces, our most perfect versions of SELF AND LIFE because we think that is just expected of us, right? Well… expected or not, or just public show or pretense – NO ONE has a perfect life. We wouldn’t probably not want to trade our lives with theirs EVER, truth be told.

The important element of all this is the Atonement of Jesus Christ and your acknowledgment to HIM that you accept His gift and are willing through your acts of faith, service and true repentance to begin anew – have a change of heart and leave behind you the actions that have brought you unhappiness, misery and pain and become a “NEW CREATURE” – So the scriptures call it. Not a perfect one, just new, changed, motivated, continuing in prayer and repentance every day of your (our) lives – because it’s all about the process and the path you decide to BE ON from here on out. It’s not about doing it PERFECTLY. SO stop allowing the negative thoughts and self doubt and comparison to others and unworthy nonsense be a stumbling block to your progression and walk with your heavenly father. HE knows you and loves you and is there to walk with you. If you allow the church and people to be an aid to you in this walk – then you will just be that much the wiser and successful as you go here. And remember the devil has no power over the hearts of any of us UNLESS we hand it to him through our attitudes and actions. Keep a prayer of thanks always in your heart and just DO YOUR BEST _ that’s all the Lord expects of any of us. Be strong and sure, happy and true – you are a beloved daughter of God,remember that! : )

It is good to be humbled, if it leads to repentance. Conversion is more of a process than an event. When you take the sacrament, you are recommiting yourself to keep the commandments of God and to apply the atonement in your life. Gratitude is a great attitude, but know that your Father in Heaven loves you, and wants you to be happy. A good goal would be to make the spirit of the Holy Ghost your constant companion. As a confirmed member, you have a right to this gift, but you still have to live worthy of it, and learn to recognize it, and invite it into your life with your thoughts and actions. It is real and it is powerful. True conversion comes through the influence of the Holy Ghost.

You will always remember your sins because you have to learn from them. You have to be able to recall the affects of your actions so you know whether you want to do them again or not.

I am concerned that you are still holding such a strong emotional attachment to them though. You might want to talk to your bishop and see if he can give you a blessing to help work through those feelings. Remember, Satan uses negative feelings to control us and make us feel powerless, that is not from God. So dont even think that holding on to that emotion is productive. KNOWing what you did was wrong is different than constantly living in pain over it.

You must realize the things that strengthen you and stick with them. Scriptures, prayer, church etc… Believe me, please (personal experience here) walking away from those supports just makes the hurt worse because you are less well equipped to deal with those feelings. We mess up. It happens. Dwelling on it, means you can never move past it. You must move past it.

I know that some sins are harder. Once those feelings and visuals get in your head they dont just disappear. I have found that when you really just distracted you need to just pray, in your head, to ask God to help you keep your thoughts clean and focus on something else. If you sit there, stuck in the mire, you wont learn to control your feelings and thoughts. And they can be controlled. Praying really does help a lot. Just try it. And email me if you ever need to talk or vent.

I’ll pass along something I heard someone say once (but check out Missy’s answer first) If it is the devil that is influencing you to feel bad, you will feel a general feeling of despair and not know what to do. If it is the spirit of the lord trying to get you to change and come back to Him, you will be prompted towards specific actions. Try to make decisions when you feel spiritually in tune, not when you are down and depressed. But even if you are doing teh right things, the devil will still be trying to work on you and discourage you. That is one reason it is good to write down your feelings when you feel spiritually alive. Then you can recapture those feelings as you read what you have written.

Sweetie, The Gospel is supposed to make you HAPPY —

You seem to be way overly focused on “sin” and such. If you repented, you are FORGIVEN — washed CLEAN of those old “sins” , they don’t exist anymore, and you are flogging yourself in a way that would make Jesus weep.

You need to focus more on where you can go from here — you can be anything you want to be, you can go anywhere you want to, with the knowledge and assurance that you are a precious, beloved daughter of God, and that He is looking out for you and gudining you. That doesn’t mean there will be no mistakes, hurts or sorrows, but it does mean you can go forward in confidence, hopefulness and faith —

Stop looking behind you — that’s not the direction you want to go, is it?

You can start over any minute – It’s all up to you. But you have to be willing to go FORWARD.

Good luck and Blessings –

Guilt that drives you to repentance is a good thing. Guilt that drives you to beat yourself up is a bad thing. Which do you think you have?

God is very forgiving and understanding. Simply pick yourself up and start over again. Try to learn from your mistakes and then continue pressing forward. The whole time making sure to pray for His help.

Source(s): Personal experience.

repentance will bring natural remorse but satan will use guilt as a tool to keep you low and make you feel unworthy. Everybody has weaknesses and no you are not going to be perfect. Your going to slip, your going to sin, your going to make mistakes, period. Now what you do after you make mistakes makes you either a weaker, the same, or stronger person. Your Lord unconditionally loves you no matter what you do, never forget that. I believe we are the ones who shut out his love for us and a lot of times because we ourselves feel guilty or unworthy of his love but this is far from the truth. Take things one step at a time and improve on just one aspect that you see can be better dont try and tackle everything at once because it can be overwhelming. Of course it would always help to pray often with a broken heart, read the scriptures, listen to good music, exercise, eat healthy, talk and think of godly subjects, stay faithful, and just strive to follow the will of God. Your doing fine and the Lord is with you. take care sister

Source(s): far from perfect LDS member