Dale G. Rendlum started his 2015 April Feneral Conference talk, which I loved so much I am devoting this entire post to it, by saying this: "After receiving widespread praise and acclaim for his work in the anti-apartheid struggle and for forgiving those who imprisoned him for 27 years, Nelson Mandela would often say, “I’m no saint — that is, unless you think a saint is a sinner who keeps on trying.”The point is that we have all sinned and fallen short of the glory of God (Romans 3:23) it is by repentance that we again become clean. Jesus often told those who came to Him that their sins were forgiven. He never said anyone was in unforgiven or that anyone was unforgivable. When Christ healed He often said your faith has made you whole. But the word for perfect in Hebrew means "to be made whole" so what Jesus was really saying is that their faith had made them perfect!To be made whole is how we become perfected. If the goal was to be blemish free as Christ is then we never would have come here to live a moral life. We are taught as Mormons that the plan was for us to come to Earth to further progress so that we would grow to become as perfected as God is now. We do that by making mistakes and by learning from them.We owe it to ourselves to be patient with ourselves and persevere, we owe it to others to allow them to grow and learn at their own pace and in their own way. Otherwise we are hypocrites as we are sinners as well.We can't change our past but we can change who we become and as long as we're trying that's all anyone, even God, can ask of us.Elder Rendlum then said this:
“God cares a lot more about who we are, and who we are becoming, than about who we once were...He cares that we keep on trying.”
Satan is the inspiration for those who say that some sins are unforgivable, or those who hold us up to the blemish free example of Christ and point by point show us just how far we are from being 'perfect' in the hopes that we feel shame and give up. But then Elder Rendlum said this: “In His mercy, God promises forgiveness when we repent and turn from wickedness — so much so, that our sins will not even be mentioned to us. … No matter how wicked, we can say, ‘That’s who I was. But that past wicked self is no longer who I am.’ ”
The goal is not to be blemish free, the goal is to keep trying, to keep repenting until we have been made whole. Until our faith has made us truly perfect.
Elder Rendlum finished with this invitation:
“My invitation to all of us is to evaluate our lives, repent and keep on trying,” Elder Renlund said. “If we don’t try, we’re just latter-day sinners; if we don’t persevere, we’re latter-day quitters; and if we don’t allow others to try, we’re just latter-day hypocrites. As we try, persevere, and help others to do the same, we are true Latter-day Saints.”
