Is to sin while planning to repent better?

[_Finn the human]

If I remember right, Neal Maxwell said that he tried to pray with these thoughts in mind, “God, is there anything I have done or not done that has displeased thee today?” And “How can I notice the early signs of sin so that I can repent without delay.” I really liked those ideas as a believer. I was never any good at following that advice though.

[_zeezrom]

"if I fall and sin which I do, that I may almost immediately/hurriedly seek forgiveness make restitution as needed and seek/rely on the Spirit to restore my relationship with Jesus who is always ready to forgive and welcome me back.

Thanks for sharing this. It makes sense to me but does cause some additional question because this prayer has, in my mind currently, a resemblance of my scenario, which consists of planning at the time of (or soon before) committing the sin. The reason I say this is because it sounds like this prayer would give the person time to put it away in their long-term memory bank. Once in memory, you can recall this message at or just before a commission of sin. This is why it feels like a similar to my scenario. Do you see it differently?

[_cwald]

No. Mormon Jesus would be pissed.

[_RockSlider]

Everyone knows it's easier to ask for forgiveness than to ask for permission.

[_Holy Ghost]

How many young men in the church have mulled over this dilemma during worthiness interviews?

Keep it quiet -- keep it safe.

I never passed up an opportunity as a teen to have sex when on a date. I thought I would need to repent before going to BYU. I chose instead to just say there was nothing along those lines of which I needed to repent and that I was chaste. At BYU, I again never passed up an opportunity to have sex on a date, which was just as frequently the case as in high school. That first year, I thought I would need to repent before going on a mission. When the time came, I took the same approach--I was chaste and had nothing to repent of. On a mission, I kept mum. Despite hearing that we'd not be baptizing if we had unconfessed sex sins in our past, I had a much higher than average baptism rate than the average in our mission and in our region of the world.

I 'rinsed and repeated' this cycle after my mission, until I "went inactive" (I stopped believing).

There was never any manifestation of 'discernment' that I had sex sins needing to be confessed or was unworthy, not even when one of the then 70, now one of the 12, interviewed each of us at an unusual zone conference.

Although I had while in high school and during freshman year at BYU planned to repent, I never felt remorse. Each girl was a willing participant in all we did. We took the necessary precautions to prevent making a baby. There was just nothing to feel remorse about. The interviews only ever felt intrusive. I had pre-planned to repent, but never did. If there is a god, he, she or it knows already. I'm yet unconvinced that telling a bishop or whomever would do anything for god or me.

[_zeezrom]

Sometimes I look back at my posts and wonder, why did I even say that to begin with. Because I really don't believe in sins anymore. I guess it's just a thought I had at the moment based on a memory.

While I don't even recognize "sins" as a real concept, I do recognize that I have shortcomings and flaws. I've decided that for the year 2020, I will overcome a big one: pleasing others and avoiding confrontations. In doing this, I have tended to hide my true feelings, which is dishonest. Perhaps in my faithful worldview, I would consider this a sin and try to repent of it. But I would probably have been motivated by a belief that I'm disappointing God in being dishonest about my feelings. That's not how I look at it anymore. Now, I just want to be more honest because it will make me happier. It will probably have other affects, like making my relationships with others better than they are now. I see nothing wrong with being motivated by my own happiness anymore. The Mormon church took that right from me but I'm taking it back!

[_Shulem]

I see nothing wrong with being motivated by my own happiness anymore. The Mormon church took that right from me but I'm taking it back!

Right. And feel free to touch yourself in any way or manner you want because it's your body!

[_zeezrom]

Right. And feel free to touch yourself in any way or manner you want because it's your body!

:lol:

Hell yeah! How do we know God if we don't even know ourselves?
:evil:

https://www.google.com/amp/s/www.christ ... g-god.html