We Must Be More Than Clean *

When I read the following analogy, I felt it pertained directly to me and my past.  So I want to share it with you:

Analogy: We must be more than clean.

President Dallin H. Oaks shared an analogy to explain how the Savior prepares us to return to God’s presence:
“We tend to think of the results of repentance as simply cleansing us from sin, but that is an incomplete view. … A person who sins is like a tree that bends easily in the wind. On a windy and rainy day, the tree bends so deeply against the ground that the leaves become soiled with mud, like sin. 
If we focus only on cleaning the leaves, the weakness in the tree that allowed it to bend and soil its leaves may remain. Similarly, a person who is merely sorry to be soiled by sin will sin again in the next high wind.  (How many times have I given in at the next high wind???)  The susceptibility to repetition continues until the tree has been strengthened.   (And that's the purpose of the Atonement of Christ and ARP--to give us new strength.)
“When a person has gone through the process that results in what the scriptures call ‘a broken heart and a contrite spirit,’ the Savior does more than cleanse that person from sin. He gives him or her new strength. That strengthening is essential for us to realize the purpose of the cleansing, which is to return to our Heavenly Father. 
To be admitted to His presence, we must be more than clean. We must also be changed from a morally weak person who has sinned into a strong person with the spiritual stature to dwell in the presence of God” 
* (“The Atonement and Faith,” Ensign, Apr. 2010, 33–34).

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