Sacrament Meeting Program

Presiding: President Brendon Stoner
Conducting: Brother Alan Riker
Opening Hymn: CS 108 - I'll Seek the Lord Early
Invocation: By Invitation

Ward Business

Sacrament Hymn: # 175 - Oh God the Eternal Father
Administration of the Sacrament

Speaker: Ayden Stoner
Intermediate Hymn: #1040 - His Voice is As the Sound
Speaker: Scott Fredrickson

Closing Hymn: #1001 - Come Thou Fount of Every Blessing
Benediction: By Invitation

Your Repentance Doesn’t Burden Jesus Christ; It Brightens His Joy

By Sister Tamara W. Runia
First Counselor in the Young Women General Presidency

Several years ago on a trip to Florida, I sat outside reading a book. Its title suggested that we can still make it to heaven, even though we’re not perfect now. A woman walking by asked, “Do you think it’s possible?”

I looked up, confused, and then realized she was talking about the book I was reading. I said something ridiculous like, “Well, I’m not that far into it, but I’ll let you know how it ends.”

Oh, how I wish I could travel back in time! I’d tell her, “Yes, it’s possible! Because heaven isn’t for people who’ve been perfect; it’s for people who’ve been forgiven, who choose Christ again and again.”

Today I want to speak to those of us who sometimes feel, “Repentance and forgiveness seem to be working for everyone but me.” Those who privately wonder, “Since I keep making the same mistakes, maybe this is the way I am.” Those who, like me, have days when the covenant path feels so steep, it’s almost a covenant hike!

A wonderful missionary in Australia, Elder QaQa from Fiji, shared a similar feeling in his departing testimony: “I know that God loves me, but sometimes I wonder, ‘Does God know that I love Him?’ Because I’m not perfect, and I still make mistakes.”

In that one tender, haunting question, Elder QaQa summed up exactly what I’ve often worried about. Maybe you’re wondering too, thinking, “I’m trying so hard, but does God know I’m really trying? When I keep falling short, does God know I still love Him?”

It saddens me to admit this, but I used to measure my relationship with the Savior by how perfectly I was living. I thought an obedient life meant I would never need to repent. And when I made mistakes, which was every single day, I distanced myself from God, thinking, “He must be so disappointed in me.”

That’s just not true.

I’ve learned that if you wait until you’re clean enough or perfect enough to go to the Savior, you’ve missed the whole point!

What if we thought about commandments and obedience in a different way?

I testify that while God cares about our mistakes, He cares more about what happens after we make a mistake. Are we going to turn to Him again and again? Are we going to stay in this covenant relationship?

Maybe you hear the Lord’s words “If [you] love me, keep my commandments” and feel deflated because you haven’t kept all the commandments. Let me remind you that it is also a commandment to repent! In fact, it might be the most repeated commandment in the scriptures.

Your Repentance Doesn’t Burden Jesus Christ; It Brightens His Joy

Sister Runia teaches that our worth doesn’t change when we make mistakes and that the Savior understands us and wants us to choose Him again and again.

Sister Tamara W. Runia