Welcome to Closer to Christ through General Conference,
where two friends who love Jesus share our own
approach to studying the most recent General
Conference talks. This is Abbey and Amy. Let's
jump into it. Today's talk is Your Repentance
Doesn't Burden Jesus Christ, It Brightens His
Joy. This was done by Sister Tamara Runya, First
Counselor, Young Women's General Presidency.
I can't tell you the number of times that I've
heard her quoted since this talk or the comments
that were made on Facebook or whatever myriad
of conversations. With the hands. Yes, she was
very demonstrative with her hands or whatever,
but then the message hit a lot of people's hearts.
For sure. Yeah, it's been a really popular talk
to reference since that time. So thank you for
being with us today as we get to jump in and
discuss this together. Starting out, several
years ago, Sister Runia 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?
She looked up, confused, and then realized she
was talking about the book. She said, well, I'm
not that far into it, but I'll let you know how
it ends. Then she teaches us with these words.
Oh, how I wish I could travel back in time. I
tell her, yes, it's possible because heaven isn't
for people who've been perfect. It's for people
who have been forgiven, who chose Christ again
and again. I love this, Abby. I feel like everything
that she taught us in this talk is something
that landed well with people's hearts. Like you
said, we've heard it over the pulpit, just people
talking about it, whether it's in their testimony
or in their talk. And you can tell that it hit
them and it was like the right message at the
right time so many of us we want to be perfect
but we just know we haven't achieved that and
just to hear the way that she phrased it in the
conversation that comes from this talk let us
all know like we've got a good chance because
exactly and she said it over and over So Sister
Runia used to measure her relationship with the
Savior by how perfectly she was living. She thought
an obedient life meant that she would never need
to repent. And when she made mistakes, which
was every single day, then she would distance
herself from God thinking, he must be so disappointed
in me. And then she says, that's just not true.
She says, 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. So
a question would be, what if we thought about
commandments and obedience in a different way.
So she really has us reframe the way we're looking
at this. She says, 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? I love
that. I've said that to my kids so many times
is, you made a mistake. The most important thing
is what happens next. Are you going to hide and
just be like, not acknowledging that we're not
doing it? you know this is a chance for growth
um when we repent we receive the gift of christ's
atonement actually receive it she reminds us
that in our quest to keep the commandments to
remember that repenting may be the most often
repeated commandment in the scriptures she said
our prophet said the savior loves us always but
especially when we repent as i was listening
to this talk over today again I remembered there
have been quite a few over the years. I think
one was maybe about 2014, but it was get really,
really, really good at repenting. And then another
one was repent every day. Was it repent every
day, every day, every day? So I feel like this
message, of course, because it is one of the
main principles of the gospel, we're going to
hear it often. It's not that it's new information.
It's just that we need to learn over and over
and over in a layered approach. And we're not
the same people we were back in 2014. We're not
the same people we were back. When I say the
same people, I mean like we have probably a different
circle of people, maybe even added, you know,
because of children, maybe spouses, whatever
it is, but you're constantly changing and growing
and our circumstances are different. The relationship
challenges are different. And so it's just so
wonderful to listen to it in a different way.
by another servant of the lord who shines their
light in a very specific way and i just feel
like she knocked this out of the park like if
i were heavenly father or the heavenly host watching
her do this i'd be like she's doing so great
and like clapping her on just like every person
that talked in conference it was a very timely
message for us and and something you said that
that last quote you shared the savior loves us
always but especially when we repent i just feel
like um yes the love is the love it sometimes
can feel one -sided because they just have this
immense amount of love for us we show our love
back to them by certain actions that we do we
know that we're going to come here we know that
we're going to make mistakes and we're going
to to sin but needing a savior and turning to
the savior is their love language yes they're
they're just grateful to see us trust in the
plan so much that that we find our way back to
to him very very good through him to him to him
through him both yeah sister runia invites us
to reframe what a call to repentance can mean
she says when we hear the lord calling repent
ye repent ye what if you imagined him saying
i love you i love you i love it picture him pleading
with you to leave behind the behavior causing
you pain inviting you to step out of darkness
and turn to his light different way of looking
at repentance for sure as an invitation to leap
pain and darkness behind and trade it for his
light and peace i'm going to sign up for that
serious isn't that a gentle invitation it's not
a rebuke it's not a shaming or a call to be perfect.
Our Savior was willing to suffer the pain of
his atonement because he loves you. In fact,
you are the joy that was set before him while
he suffered, as it says in Hebrews 12 too. We
are the reason, the vision of us in his mind
is the reason he was able to accomplish the thing
he promised to do all those years ago. It's such
a beautiful thought, Abby. What if we taught
repentance this way? The invitation to repent
is an expression of God's love. We're hearing
this over and over again. I hope it's sinking
into us, into our hearts. Saying yes to that
invitation is an expression of ours. Picture
your favorite image of Christ. Now imagine him
smiling brightly with joy each time you use his
gift because he is the perfect brightness of
hope. Yes, your repentance doesn't burden Jesus
Christ. It brightens his joy. And when I hear
that, it also tells me that that adds glory to
him. When I hear brightens, like each time. each
time we use the repentance and his atonement,
it magnifies his glory, I would say. Oh, you
used your repentance ticket again. You're almost
out of those. You punched it. It's almost all
gone. No. It's all punches. Yes. Once we get
good at doing it, now we can turn to that. It
becomes more available to us. It's not a finite
resource. Yes. And I love that. It was an infinite
atonement for a reason. Not finite. I love that
she says that she said, let's teach that because
repentance is our best news. We don't stay on
the covenant path by never making a mistake.
We stay on the covenant path by repenting every
day. And when we're repenting, God forgives without
shaming us. comparing us to anyone else or scolding
us because this is the same thing we were repenting
of last week. I feel like that is very much a
natural man way to look at things. And 100%,
it's the way that Satan looks at it, right? The
shaming, all of that. He's very excited every
time he sees us on our knees. He delights to
forgive us because to him, we are delightful.
I can't stress enough what a light talk this
is. on such a heavy topic. Yes. Yeah. And when
you say heavy, like she's talked about heavy
too. She's like, it almost has like a heft to
it, right? Like there's, but that's shame. We've
made it that way. Exactly. So I just love that.
I mean, the word delight, the word joy, the word,
like all of these beautiful words that are very
uplifting. I love it. I love repentance framed
in that way. The way Satan looks at mistakes
and sin is not the way God does it. it's a totally
different view and of course the feelings attached
to it are very different he would want us to
hide bury cover or not not cover maybe no well
no obviously the savior covers oh yeah yeah yeah
he would want you to hi barry yeah i'm thinking
through through temple things particularly but
yes he wants you to be ashamed of them in a way
that you don't bring them to the surface and
want to take care of them he he wants you to
hide from them yes and um Very, very different
than the way that God wants us to deal with them.
Say, in the great accuser and deceiver, use a
shame to keep us from God. Shame is the darkness
so heavy it feels that you look out. If you took
it out of your body, it would have an actual
weight or heft to it. Shame is that voice that
beat you up saying, what were you thinking? You
never get anything right. You can't be forgiven
for that particular thing. It's too heavy. It's
too much. Mm -hmm. Shame doesn't tell us we made
a mistake. It tells us we are the mistake. You
may even hear hide. The adversary does everything
in his power to keep the heaviness inside, telling
us that the cost is too high and that it would
be easier if we stay in the darkness, removing
all hope. He is the thief of hope. And you need
to hear this. So I'll say these words out loud.
You are not the voice in your head or the mistakes
you have made. You may need to say that for yourself
out loud too. Tell Satan not today. put him behind
you. That's interesting. Yeah. Worth isn't tied
to our obedience. No. I love that that was an
emphasis here. Yeah. Again, reframing it. The
Savior is forever brighter than the darkness
of shame. He would never attack your worth, so
watch closely. And then she does the hand thing,
right? She has one hand that's stationary, and
she says, imagine this hand represents worth.
And then the other hand. This represents obedience.
Maybe you woke up this morning, said a meaningful
prayer, and searched the scriptures to hear God's
voice. You've made good decisions, and you're
treating the people around you with Christlikeness.
You're listening to General Conference. Your
obedience is here. She has it up high. Or maybe
things haven't gone so well. You've struggled
lately to do those small, simple things to connect
to heaven. You've made some decisions you weren't
proud of. Where is your worth? Has this hand
moved at all? She has it up high and it never
moved. Your worth is not tied to obedience. Your
worth is constant. It never changes. It was given
to you by God and there's nothing you or anyone
else can do to change it. Obedience brings blessings.
That is true. But worth isn't one of them. So
good. Your worth is always great in the sight
of God, no matter where your decisions have taken
you. Sister Runya, when she was little, she took
some diving lessons and every dive was judged
for straight legs, the minimal splash, kind of
something I love to watch because I'm terrified
of high jumps. And so then they add some tricks
into it and all these other components. So there's
an added measure that the judge take into account.
The degree of difficulty the dive is going to
potentially account for. She reminds us that
each of us is diving, so to speak, with a degree
of difficulty the Lord knows about. And that
He is the judge on this. This is why He is the
judge and not onlookers, bystanders that take
the opportunity to look at you, your life, and
make snap judgments about you. The look that
the Lord has on it is more of intimate knowledge.
He knows the degree of difficulty. That we all
have. Of every dive, let's say. Yeah. This is
also an echo to Elder Cossé's talk. These conference
talks, they're so well integrated to each other.
And the way that they stack them, you know, once
everybody's done their assignment and they prepare
things that they seem to orchestrate like such
a beautiful. ebb and flow to conference weekend
i agree so we get these layers of teaching and
we might pick up something from one talk and
then the next one just kind of compounds that
understanding that we're going to have or as
you go back to them six months later like you're
doing that you've got some thoughts in your head
as you as we add then this next layer of sister
runia's talk onto it but um here's a quote From
Elder Cossé, it says, Elder Neal A. Maxwell explained
that God takes into merciful account not only
our desires to our performance, but also the
degree of difficulty which our varied circumstances
impose upon us. Yes, I did love that echo in
these talks, because it totally speaks to my
heart. And Neal A. Maxwell, you can't go wrong
with that, but I love the quote that he talks
about that. with a degree of difficulty now an
action item this is something that another thing
that um sister runia talked about um it's in
three third nephi 17 where the people were close
to the savior and they could hear him praying
for them and this is what she says if you could
hear the savior praying for you what do you think
he would say remember your savior knows the degree
of difficulty you're experiencing he's felt it
So maybe something we could try tonight before
we pray. We've mentioned this before, but let's
bring it up again. Maybe imagine Jesus Christ
close by, being your advocate with the Father,
and ask yourself, what would the Savior say to
the Father about me? And then sit quietly and
listen. And listen for that voice that says good
things about you, the voice of the Savior, your
finest friend, your Father in heaven, who is
really there. Remember their love. And your worth
are always great, no matter what. I love Abby
that she adds, listen for that voice that says
good things about you. I think that's a really
good distinguishing factor. If there's any shame
or why haven't you figured this out yet type
of words in there, you know that is not from
God. What I heard in this talk is what Satan
does with sin and the use of our agency versus
our Savior, Jesus Christ, and our Heavenly Father
do with sin and our agency. I feel like this
was very, you could really see it clearly in
this talk. Satan brings shame and feelings of
darkness and hopelessness. He wants us to look
at repentance as a chore or something to be avoided.
And even in this talk, I almost, you know, I
was saying she talks about it. and i was actually
referring to repentance and saying how there's
a heft and a weight to it it was shame and so
many times i feel like um we as humans we kind
of think of repentance as a heavy process as
like it does have a heft to it and she's like
no no no no that's the way satan wants us to
look at repentance it is not like that delight
joy lightness um And even Christ saying, instead
of repent ye, repent ye, I love you, I love you.
I mean, just a whole new frame of things. You
know that's true because when people, when they
realize that the things they're doing, it's not
just, you know, kind of checking in with the
Lord at the end of the day and like kind of unburdening
yourself of the little things that you've done
during the day. These bigger ones that have accumulated
over a period of time to the point where you
know that you do need to meet with your bishop
to resolve some of these things. and usually
fear prevents that for time or you just didn't
even think that it was a bad thing that you were
doing maybe something changes in your life you're
like oh i do want to take care of that you make
the decision you want to meet with the bishop
the bishop is you know authorized to represent
jesus christ like it doesn't mean they're making
decisions for you but like they're going to use
the spirit to like speak to you and communicate
with you and in whatever process is going to
need to happen to unburden yourself with this
but um you know that's a long way to get to the
point of what i was trying to say is that I know
people, I know time and time again, the story
is that they'll say something like, I met with
the bishop and I can't tell you how much lighter
I feel, right? So it does kind of take on this
imagery of like, you're carrying around these
bag of rocks, these burdens, these things. And
the second that you decide to involve the Savior
in that process, He's as good as lifted off you.
Is it done? No. Or is there work to be done?
But just the unburdening, that's the biggest
brightness that it brings it gives you hope like
you're like you start you start taking the cloud
cloudiness off of that self -worth satan's been
working on that like you're not good enough he
doesn't want to hear what you have to say you
know i'm burning that you can't that's such a
bad thing you can't do that yeah um it takes
the blinders that we put on ourself off and like
i said people feel lighter i feel like too you
know in this in this process that you were just
describing abby i feel like part of it is when
we actually come to ourselves and we have the
courage and the strength to say out loud something
that we wanted to keep deep in our hearts and
not let any other person ever ever know that
think of it that way it's like satan saying hide
so as soon as we stop hiding and we bring it
into the light literally bring it to christ that's
when the burden is lifted i mean there is an
actual process to this and like you said anyone
who's gone through this You feel that lightness
and you feel like something, I mean, it like
unlocks a key and you are a different person.
That is the power of the atonement. So on the
other hand, God and Christ offer brightness of
hope and they offer redemption and ultimately
to live with them. This is what Sister Runia
says. I stand here to witness that Jesus Christ
gives light to those who sit in darkness. So
on those days when you feel that voice telling
you to hide. that you should hide in a dark room
all by yourself, I invite you to be brave and
believe Christ. Walk over and turn on the light,
our perfect brightness of hope. May we all come
unto Christ saying, will you help me with the
hope, a revealed assurance that his arms are
extended to you always. I believe this fresh
view of repentance means that even though we
don't have perfect obedience yet, we try affectionate
obedience now, choosing to stay again and again
because we love him. And I echo Sister Runya's
final words, may the Lord of lights wrap you
in his arms and console you and love you continually.
May we love him continually and choose him again
and again. Such a great talk. I hope you have
enjoyed it this week and just let this sit on
your heart and ask the Lord how he feels about
you and listen to all of the good things that
he has to say. Catch you next time.