#1 - In addition to recognizing our sins, we must feel sincere sorrow for what we have done.

We must
feel that our sins are terrible. We must want to unload and abandon them. The scriptures tell us, “All
those who humble themselves before God, and desire to be baptized, and come forth with broken
hearts and contrite spirits, and … have truly repented of all their sins … shall be received by baptism into
his church” (D&C 20:37).
-Gospel Principles – Chapter 19

#2 - Now I rejoice, not that ye were made sorry, but that ye sorrowed to repentance: for ye were made
sorry after a godly manner, that ye might receive damage by us in nothing.
For godly sorrow worketh repentance to salvation not to be repented of: but the sorrow of the world
worketh death.
-2 Corinthians 7: 9-10

#3 - And it came to pass that the Nephites began to repent of their iniquity, and began to cry even as
had been prophesied by Samuel the prophet; for behold no man could keep that which was his own, for
the thieves, and the robbers, and the murderers, and the magic art, and the witchcraft which was in the
land.

Thus there began to be a mourning and a lamentation in all the land because of these things, and more
especially among the people of Nephi.

And it came to pass that when I, Mormon, saw their lamentation and their mourning and their sorrow
before the Lord, my heart did begin to rejoice within me, knowing the mercies and the long-suffering of
the Lord, therefore supposing that he would be merciful unto them that they would again become a
righteous people.

But behold this my joy was vain, for their sorrowing was not unto repentance, because of the goodness
of God; but it was rather the sorrowing of the damned, because the Lord would not always suffer them
to take happiness in sin.

And they did not come unto Jesus with broken hearts and contrite spirits, but they did curse God, and
wish to die. Nevertheless they would struggle with the sword for their lives.
-Mormon 2:10-14

#4 - Sorrow for Sin.

In order to be forgiven, you must first acknowledge within yourself that you have sinned. If you are
striving to live the gospel, such an acknowledgment will lead to “godly sorrow,” which “worketh
repentance to salvation” (2 Corinthians 7:10). Godly sorrow does not come because of the natural
consequences of sin or because of a fear of punishment; rather, it comes from the knowledge that you
have displeased your Heavenly Father and your Savior. When you experience godly sorrow, you have a
sincere desire for change and a willingness to submit to every requirement for forgiveness.
-True To The Faith – Repentance
#5 - True repentance involves a proper sorrow for sin. A person can be sorry for the wrong reason. He
can be sorry that he was caught and punished. He can regret his actions because they caused a lack of
reputation. Or, like the Nephites, he can be sorry because his actions brought misery upon himself.
Godly sorrow is the recognition that in sinning we have offended God and put our souls in jeopardy of
spiritual death.
-Book of Mormon Institute Manual – Page 130 (Old Version)

#6 - The gospel teaches us that relief from torment and guilt can be earned through repentance. Save
for those few who defect to perdition after having known a fulness, there is no habit, no addiction, no
rebellion, no transgression, no offense exempted from the promise of complete forgiveness.
-Boyd K. Packer, Brilliant Morning of Forgiveness, October 1995

#7 - I hope we will not live in the past. People who live in the past don’t have very much future. There is
a great tendency for us to lament about our losses, about decisions that we have made that we think in
retrospect were probably wrong decisions. There is a great tendency for us to feel badly about the
circumstances with which we are surrounded, thinking they might have been better had we made
different decisions. We can profit by the experience of the past. But let us not spend our time worrying
about decisions that have been made, mistakes that have been made. Let us live in the present and in
the future.
-President Ezra Taft Benson, Teachings of Presidents of the Church, Chapter 5

#8 - And now, my son, I desire that ye should let these things trouble you no more, and only let your sins
trouble you, with that trouble which shall bring you down unto repentance.
-Alma 42:29

#9 - My dear brothers and sisters, if we look at ourselves only through our mortal eyes, we may not see
ourselves as good enough. But our Heavenly Father sees us as who we truly are and who we can
become. He sees us as His sons and daughters, as beings of eternal light with everlasting potential and
with a divine destiny.
-President Dieter F. Uchtdorf – It Works Wonderfully! – October 2015

#10 - (S)tart where you are.

Sometimes we feel discouraged because we are not “more” of something—more spiritual, respected,
intelligent, healthy, rich, friendly, or capable. Naturally, there is nothing wrong with wanting to improve.
God created us to grow and progress. But remember, our weaknesses can help us to be humble and
turn us to Christ, who will “make weak things become strong.”4 Satan, on the other hand, uses our
weaknesses to the point that we are discouraged from even trying.

I learned in my life that we don’t need to be “more” of anything to start to become the person God
intended us to become.
God will take you as you are at this very moment and begin to work with you. All you need is a willing
heart, a desire to believe, and trust in the Lord.
-President Dieter F. Uchtdorf – It Works Wonderfully! – October 2015

#11 - President Thomas S. Monson has taught, “One of God’s greatest gifts to us is the joy of trying
again, for no failure ever need be final.”8 Even if we’ve been a conscious, deliberate sinner or have
repeatedly faced failure and disappointment, the moment we decide to try again, the Atonement of
Christ can help us. And we need to remember that it is not the Holy Ghost that tells us we’re so far gone
that we might as well give up.
-Elder Dale G. Renlund, Latter-Day Saints Keep on Trying – April 2015

#12 - Yours is the privilege, if you want it, to come to know for yourself, today or soon, that you are
pleasing God in spite of your shortcomings.
-Elder Jörg Klebingat – Approaching The Throne of God With Confidence – October 2014

#13 - (A)cknowledge and face your weaknesses, but don’t be immobilized by them, because some of
them will be your companions until you depart this earth life. No matter what your current status, the
very moment you voluntarily choose honest, joyful, daily repentance by striving to simply do and be
your very best, the Savior’s Atonement envelops and follows you, as it were, wherever you go. Living in
this manner, you can truly “always retain a remission of your sins” (Mosiah 4:12) every hour of every
day, every second of every minute, and thus be fully clean and acceptable before God all the time.
-Elder Jörg Klebingat – Approaching The Throne of God With Confidence – October 2014

#14 - Whenever the adversary cannot persuade imperfect yet striving Saints such as you to abandon
your belief in a personal and loving God, he employs a vicious campaign to put as much distance as
possible between you and God. The adversary knows that faith in Christ—the kind of faith that produces
a steady stream of tender mercies and even mighty miracles—goes hand in hand with a personal
confidence that you are striving to choose the right. For that reason he will seek access to your heart to
tell you lies—lies that Heavenly Father is disappointed in you, that the Atonement is beyond your reach,
that there is no point in even trying, that everyone else is better than you, that you are unworthy, and a
thousand variations of that same evil theme.
-Elder Jörg Klebingat – Approaching The Throne of God With Confidence – October 2014

#15 - He is not waiting to love you until you have overcome your weaknesses and bad habits. He loves
you today with a full understanding of your struggles. He is aware that you reach up to Him in heartfelt
and hopeful prayer. He knows of the times you have held onto the fading light and believed—even in
the midst of growing darkness. He knows of your sufferings. He knows of your remorse for the times you
have fallen short or failed. And still He loves you.
-President Dieter F. Uchtdorf – Living the Gospel Joyfully – October 2014
#16 - The fourth concept I would like to stress is what the scriptures term “godly sorrow” for our sins. It
is not uncommon to find men and women in the world who feel remorse for the things they do wrong.
Sometimes this is because their actions cause them or loved ones great sorrow and misery. Sometimes
their sorrow is caused because they are caught and punished for their actions. Such worldly feelings do
not constitute “godly sorrow.”

… In the final days of the Nephite nation, Mormon said of his people: “their sorrowing was not unto
repentance, because of the goodness of God; but it was rather the sorrowing of the damned, because
the Lord would not always suffer them to take happiness in sin.

“And they did not come unto Jesus with broken hearts and contrite spirits, but they did curse God, and
wish to die.” (Morm. 2:13–14.)

In the Eastern Hemisphere, the Apostle Paul labored among the people of Corinth. After reports came of
serious problems among the Saints, including immorality (see 1 Cor. 5:1), Paul wrote a sharp letter of
rebuke. The people responded in the proper spirit, and evidently the problems were corrected, for in his
second epistle to them, Paul wrote: “Now I rejoice, not that ye were made sorry, but that ye sorrowed
to repentance: for ye were made sorry after a godly manner. …

“For godly sorrow worketh repentance to salvation not to be repented of: but the sorrow of the world
worketh death.” (2 Cor. 7:9–10.)

In both of these scriptures, godly sorrow is defined as a sorrow that leads us to repentance.

Godly sorrow is a gift of the Spirit. It is a deep realization that our actions have offended our Father and
our God. It is the sharp and keen awareness that our behavior caused the Savior, He who knew no sin,
even the greatest of all, to endure agony and suffering. Our sins caused Him to bleed at every pore. This
very real mental and spiritual anguish is what the scriptures refer to as having “a broken heart and a
contrite spirit.” (See 3 Ne. 9:20; Moro. 6:2; D&C 20:37; 59:8; Ps. 34:18; 51:17; Isa. 57:15.) Such a spirit is
the absolute prerequisite for true repentance.
-President Ezra Taft Benson, Teachings of Presidents of the Church, Chapter 5

#17 - Thus, the Savior has suffered not just for our sins and iniquities—but also for our physical pains
and anguish, our weaknesses and shortcomings, our fears and frustrations, our disappointments and
discouragement, our regrets and remorse, our despair and desperation, the injustices and inequities we
experience, and the emotional distresses that beset us.

There is no physical pain, no spiritual wound, no anguish of soul or heartache, no infirmity or weakness
you or I ever confront in mortality that the Savior did not experience first. In a moment of weakness we
may cry out, “No one knows what it is like. No one understands.” But the Son of God perfectly knows
and understands, for He has felt and borne our individual burdens. And because of His infinite and
eternal sacrifice (see Alma 34:14), He has perfect empathy and can extend to us His arm of mercy. He
can reach out, touch, succor, heal, and strengthen us to be more than we could ever be and help us to
do that which we could never do relying only upon our own power. Indeed, His yoke is easy and His
burden is light.
-Elder David A. Bednar – Bear Up Their Burdens With Ease – April 2014
#18 - One thinks of the fisherman called Simon, better known to you and to me as Peter, chief among
the Apostles. Doubting, disbelieving, impetuous Peter, in fulfillment of the Master’s prophecy, indeed
did deny Him thrice. Amidst the pushing, the jeers, and the blows, “the Lord in the agony of His
humiliation, in the majesty of His silence, … ‘turned and looked upon Peter.’” As one chronologist
described the change: “It was enough. … [Peter] ‘knew no more danger, he feared no more death.’ …
[He] rushed forth into the night … ‘to meet the morning dawn.’ … This broken-hearted penitent [stood]
before the tribunal of his own conscience, and there his old life, his old shame, his old weakness, his old
self was doomed to that death of godly sorrow which was to issue in a new and a [nobler] birth.”
-President Thomas S. Monson – For I Was Blind, but Now I See – April 1999

#19 - We may think that women are more likely than men to have feelings of inadequacy and
disappointment—that these feelings affect them more than us. I’m not sure that this is true. Men
experience feelings of guilt, depression, and failure. We might pretend these feelings don’t bother us,
but they do. We can feel so burdened by our failures and shortcomings that we begin to think we will
never be able to succeed. We might even assume that because we have fallen before, falling is our
destiny. As one writer put it, “We beat on, boats against the current, borne back ceaselessly into the
past.”
-President Dieter F. Uchtdorf – You Can Do It Now! – October 2013

#20 - No one likes to fail. And we particularly don’t like it when others—especially those we love—see us
fail. We all want to be respected and esteemed. We want to be champions. But we mortals do not
become champions without effort and discipline or without making mistakes.

Brethren, our destiny is not determined by the number of times we stumble but by the number of times
we rise up, dust ourselves off, and move forward.
-President Dieter F. Uchtdorf – You Can Do It Now! – October 2013

#21 - Of all the principles taught by prophets over the centuries, one that has been emphasized over and
over again is the hopeful and heartwarming message that mankind can repent, change course, and get
back on the true path of discipleship.

That does not mean that we should be comfortable with our weaknesses, mistakes, or sins. But there is
an important difference between the sorrow for sin that leads to repentance and the sorrow that leads
to despair.

The Apostle Paul taught that “godly sorrow worketh repentance to salvation … but the sorrow of the
world worketh death.” Godly sorrow inspires change and hope through the Atonement of Jesus Christ.
Worldly sorrow pulls us down, extinguishes hope, and persuades us to give in to further temptation.

Godly sorrow leads to conversion4 and a change of heart.5 It causes us to hate sin and love goodness.6
It encourages us to stand up and walk in the light of Christ’s love. True repentance is about
transformation, not torture or torment. Yes, heartfelt regret and true remorse for disobedience are
often painful and very important steps in the sacred process of repentance. But when guilt leads to self-
loathing or prevents us from rising up again, it is impeding rather than promoting our repentance.
-President Dieter F. Uchtdorf – You Can Do It Now! – October 2013

#22 - To earn forgiveness, one must make restitution. That means you give back what you have taken or
ease the pain of those you have injured.

But sometimes you cannot give back what you have taken because you don’t have it to give. If you have
caused others to suffer unbearably—defiled someone’s virtue, for example—it is not within your power
to give it back.

There are times you cannot mend that which you have broken. Perhaps the offense was long ago, or the
injured refused your penance. Perhaps the damage was so severe that you cannot fix it no matter how
desperately you want to.

Your repentance cannot be accepted unless there is a restitution. If you cannot undo what you have
done, you are trapped. It is easy to understand how helpless and hopeless you then feel and why you
might want to give up, just as Alma did.

The thought that rescued Alma, when he acted upon it, is this: Restoring what you cannot restore,
healing the wound you cannot heal, fixing that which you broke and you cannot fix is the very purpose
of the atonement of Christ.

When your desire is firm and you are willing to pay the “uttermost farthing,” the law of restitution is
suspended. Your obligation is transferred to the Lord. He will settle your accounts.
-Elder Boyd K. Packer – Brilliant Morning of Forgiveness – October 1995

#23 - I, the Lord, will forgive whom I will forgive, but of you it is required to forgive all men.
-D&C 64:10

#24 - When the Lord requires that we forgive all men, that includes forgiving ourselves. Sometimes, of
all the people in the world, the one who is the hardest to forgive—as well as perhaps the one who is
most in need of our forgiveness—is the person looking back at us in the mirror.
-President Dieter F. Uchtdorf – The Merciful Obtain Mercy – April 2012