How Repentance Heals Us

UPDATE (3/5/2017) You can now view and download the file for the Healing Hearts. Scroll to the bottom of the post for the link!

Last March I taught the Young Women a lesson on repentance. Many times when we hear the word "repentance" we get uncomfortable thinking that it is a bad thing or a thing that only bad people need. This is not true. We all need repentance and it is a great gift provided by our Heavenly Father and Jesus because they want to help us and heal us. As we read Elder Andersen's talk entitled, "Repent . . . That I May Heal You" (found here), we discussed several "band aids" or qualities of repentance that show that repentance is a wonderful thing all about love and healing.

I put a sad and hurt girl on the board. Each Young Woman read a quote from Elder Andersen's talk then came up to the board and put a band aid on the girl to "heal" her. Each band aid was labeled with a healing/comforting quality of repentance or its process. I tried to pick out things that would calm the girls' fears about repentance or that would help them better understand the repentance process.

Following is what I wrote on each heart, I put in bold the parts that I wanted the girls to pay special attention to:

In this life, it is never too late to repent.

Don't be discouraged. If you are striving and working to repent, you are in the process of repenting.

If you are concerned, counsel with your bishop. He will help you.

Repentance removes pain and guilt from our hearts and replaces them with joy and peace of conscience.

The Savior is there, reaching out to each of us, bidding us: "Come unto me" We can repent. We can!

The invitation to repent is rarely a voice of chastisement but rather a loving appeal to turn around and to "re-turn" toward God.

For most, repenting is quiet and quite private, daily seeking the Lord's help to make needed changes.

The Lord will forget our sins, but to help us the Lord at times allows the residue of our mistakes to rest in our memory.

I hope that through Elder Andersen's talk and our lesson the girls learned that repentance is a wonderful thing! I also hope that I was able to clear up any confusion about it.

Do you find that the Youth often feel like repentance is a bad thing? How have you tried to clear up this misconception?

UPDATE (3/5/2017) You can now view and download the file for the Healing Hearts here! Enjoy!