Comments on: Confession as a Spiritual Practice

By: Aaron R. aka Rico

Aaron R. aka Rico — Wed, 10 Mar 2010 09:46:22 +0000

Thanks to all for the kind comments.

#12 – I suspect that our local leaders can do a great deal to set this tone. I recall Eugene England speaking about a struggling RS President (in his Essay ‘Why the Church is as True…’) who did this and was able to encourage general changes in that ward community.

#14 – I think that is very insightful and has helped me more clearly think through how I think we should manage what we say in such confessions. Thank you.

#17 – Thank you for sharing your experience. I hope many have had similar feelings while going through that process.

#19 – Thanks. I was just trying to explain why I disagreed with his comment.

#21 – I wholeheartedly agree. In fact, I recall that one of the talks from our most recent conference that people spoke about was from a GA who shared how we had struggled reading his scriptures and praying for a long time. It really resonated with people.

#22 – I know very little about that but would be very interested to learn more.

By: Melinda in the Jello Belt

Melinda in the Jello Belt — Wed, 10 Mar 2010 04:22:31 +0000

While it may not be wise to confess sins publicly, I think the community would be benefitted if we could confess fear and weaknesses more publicly. I feel the pressure to put my best face on. It drives me crazy when people talk about how strong I am. Why can’t we accept each others’ weaknesses without trying to encourage them to believe they have no weaknesses?

On the recent discussions about depression, several commenters expressed amazement that other people felt like they did. Imagine if it was safe to express doubts and fears in a real-life community, instead of only online.

By: J. Stapley

J. Stapley — Wed, 10 Mar 2010 01:02:33 +0000

A little late, but I wanted to thank you for this post. The ritual meetings, which included public repentance during the Kirtland holy season are especially poignant to me.

By: Paul

Paul — Wed, 10 Mar 2010 01:02:03 +0000

Aaron, this post has stayed with me overnight (I’m in China this month, and it’s morning here now) and I can’t get Elder Faust out my head. Some of his most endearing talks for me were those in which he confessed his own weaknesses and lessons he learned. I think what was meaningful in his “confessions” is that they were specific events from his life (not general platitudes), but they had direct application to mine.

I agree with others that it is good to see when someone teaches from their own position of humility. That’s very different for me than a glib “I’m not perfect” statement. My wife teaches in the Relief Society, and I think one of the reasons her lessons are so well received is that she’s pretty honest about her own experience and her own weaknesses in the face of what she teaches.

By: Carol

Carol — Tue, 09 Mar 2010 21:17:54 +0000

Although confessions of serious sins should occur privately and confidentially between the person and the bishop, it gives me solace and hope when teachers (either RS or Gospel Doctrine) admit that, although they are striving to live righteously, they are not yet perfect.

[When my husband was bishop, several times a person would bear his or her testimony in Church, announcing that they/their marriage/their life was perfect. Then, within days, they appeared at our doorstep on verge of divorce/suicide/breakdown or after adultery/fornication/wife swapping/etc. I learned from that experience that sometimes those who announce their lives are perfect either may be hiding something or may eventually recognize they are imperfect like the rest of us:)]

By: rp

rp — Tue, 09 Mar 2010 20:07:36 +0000

Just to clarify, I wasn’t saying, “you’re wrong because Elder Mickelsen says such-and-such”. Good post.

By: Jon

Jon — Tue, 09 Mar 2010 19:55:39 +0000

I agree, I think if done appropriately, confession can have a powerful unifying force. I think the more ashamed I am of something, the more I need to confide in a few trusted friends. It gives my trusted friends the opportunity to love me unconditionally and it gives me the opportunity to feel and experience that unconditional love. As a result, it gives me more context to help me understand the much less tangible relationshipionship I have with my Savior.

By: manaen

manaen — Tue, 09 Mar 2010 19:29:14 +0000

Zion became one in heart, I believe, because the people no longer tried to hide their hearts from one another.
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… or from God and so also became one with Him, as Christ importuned in Gethsemane. My confession to my SP, now a decade and a half ago, — and his loving response — broke open my heart and then as I felt God’s love wash through it, my nature changed permanently. This was my “mighty change of heart” and I haven’t had one sense of longing since for the old nonsense in which I was trapped.
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My journey of formal reconciliation with the Church continues and I’m grateful for the oneness bishops, SPs, and their counselors have given me along the way.
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Over this time, I developed both a nagging sense of well-being and a wonder for this process God created that allowed me to persist in the wrong way until I broke and then, being prepared by this broken heart and contrite spirit for change, allowed me to turn back to Him for help and then receive a complete change of nature / putting off of the natural man.
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Marion G. Romney said that we could know when we’re converted when by the HG our soul is healed. “Healed” is the word for how I feel. That “heal” and “whole” are etymological siblings helps me understand and merge my situation with Christ’s invitation to be “perfect” (complete, whole) in His sermon on the Mount.

By: Martin

Martin — Tue, 09 Mar 2010 18:46:33 +0000

The church likes to hold itself up as a light unto the world. For whatever reason, I remember thinking as a kid that it was more important to be a good example than to be a good person. God will give you time to repent from being a bad person, but the bad example will stick in people’s forever.

You know, you sell more magazines when you airbrush the models on the cover. I think the church has been doing that, metaphorically.

By: Scott B.

Scott B. — Tue, 09 Mar 2010 18:03:57 +0000

#6,
Good thing he didn’t kill a goat. I’d hate to think what name he’d be stuck with after that.