More In Depth about Jonah

As I said yesterday, I want to study a little bit each day this week about Jonah and the objective of our primary lesson for this coming Sunday.

The objective is:

To help each child understand that Heavenly Father forgives all who truly repent.

I’ve said this 100 times too, but I feel it’s so interesting how the lessons I’m assigned to teach the boys are so perfect for what I need to study about too. Making amends, or “Restitution and Reconciliation“, is one of the key steps in true repentance. In the lesson it talks about breaking down repentance in to basic steps. Here they are:

1. Recognize our sin,
2. feel bad about it,
3. ask forgiveness,
4. do what we can to make restitution,
5. and never do it again.

As I wrote these down, I thought about comparing this simple explanation of repentance to the 12 Step Program:

1. Honesty
2. Hope
3. Trust in God
4. Truth
5. Confession
6. Change of Heart
7. Humility
8. Seeking Forgiveness
9. Restitution and Reconciliation
10. Daily Accountability
11. Personal Revelation
12. Service

Steps 1, 2 and 3 are about “Recognizing our sin”.

Steps 6 and 7 are about “Feeling bad about it”.

Steps 4 and 5 are about “asking forgiveness”.

Steps 8 and 9 are about “doing what we can to make restitution”.

Steps 10, 11, and 12 are about “never doing it again”.

The feeling bad about it part could really be steps 1, 2, and 3, AND steps 6 and 7.

In D&C 58:42-43 it reads:

42 Behold, he who has ^arepented of his ^bsins, the same is ^cforgiven, and I, the Lord, remember them no more.

43 By this ye may know if a man repenteth of his sins—behold, he will ^aconfess them and ^bforsake them.

So the question is, how did Jonah do this?

Well, he recognized, when he was on the boat and there were storms and when he was in the belly of the whale, that he had made an error in not going to visit the people of Ninevah. He definitely felt bad about it (at first), although it seems he came back to sin again when he was mad that the Lord forgave them so quickly. He did ask forgiveness. And, according to the scripture, he didn’t repeat the same mistake again.

I’m grateful I was able to study early today.

I’m grateful Becky and I are going to meet right now to talk about goals and direction.

I’m grateful that I was able to fight off the urge this morning to stay in bed.

I’m grateful to have studied about repentance and look forward to studying more about this.

I plan to contact 2 people today about making amends:

• Jamie B
• Mom (via letter)

Hasta manana!

Nate