Transcript

One principle that has greatly helped me in my own efforts to repent is realizing that God is perfectly honest. The heart of spirituality is honesty. We have to be honest with ourselves, honest with our Heavenly Father, honest with those close to us. Deceit, lying, hiding our sins, all of these take us farther away from our Heavenly Father and from His Son. In the chapter entitled "Uncompromising Honesty," one of the things that has brought a lot of attention is a letter I wrote to a man a few years ago. And I'll just read a little bit about it and make a couple of comments. I address it, "Dear Brian. Betrayal and adultery to an innocent and pure family, a righteous wife and good children in the process of establishing their own foundation of faith, is so very sad, so very unfair to the innocent. "The first answer to this most horrific situation may be 'I am addicted to pornography, and it changes the way I think.' As I have pondered this condition, I have something that I hope will help you. As I describe it to you, I do not say it to pull you down but to hopefully help you center on the issues that are perhaps even more serious than the pornography." I then describe to him another young man I knew who had some of the similar problems. Each time he had a problem with it, he would come forward. He wouldn't hide it. He would go first to his father and then later on to his wife. But then I said to my friend, "The difference between John and you is whenever pornography emerges, John rushes for help. He does not lie, and he does not hide his sins." This issue of honesty was so strongly spoken of by the Savior. Listen to His words. "Ye Pharisees make clean the outside of the cup and the platter, but your inward part is full of ravening and wickedness. There is nothing covered that shall not be revealed, neither hid that shall not be known. Therefore, whatsoever ye have spoken in darkness shall be heard in the light, and that which ye have spoken in the ear in closets shall be proclaimed upon the housetops." I know a man who is a priesthood leader at a local penitentiary. I've spoken there. I've been there with the inmates. I've admired many good qualities in their desires to change their lives and make things better. But he said to me: "The biggest difficulty these men have is that they are not honest with themselves about what they have done. They are still excusing themselves." Here's how I ended the letter to Brian. "I believe, Brian, that if you do not overcome the issue of dishonesty, you will never overcome your pornography addiction. Your lying has not just been sporadic but pervasive. You have been lying to your wife, lying to the bishop and stake president, lying to your children, lying to the Lord, lying to yourself. It is very deep-rooted and will not exit easily. You must come to terms with this." Well, I just say this to say that to some extent in our society, dishonesty is accepted, but we must fight against this trend. We must be perfectly honest. And this is something each of us can do. Be honest. It's a beautiful quality, and it's a quality of God.

Being Honest in Our Repentance

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(The Divine Gift of Forgiveness, Chapter 18) We cannot fully repent until we overcome any desire to hide our sins and embrace the Godly attribute of honesty.
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