If you haven't read my post about repentance, I recommend you do that. But if you decide not to, let me just make a few points before I dive into this post.
It has been my experience that repentance is a very misunderstood concept. Most people believe that repentance is a process in which we feel remorse for sinful things that we have done, go to God for forgiveness, and commit to refrain from doing the behavior in the future. And while repentance certainly includes these things, this concept of repentance is analogous to trying to rip out some weeds by plucking a couple of leaves off the plant. It doesn't work. The weed grows back because the roots are still intact. If you really want to permanently get rid of the weed, you have to get rid of the whole thing--roots and all.
Our actions are based upon what we believe--what we think and how we think. We have difficulty changing our behavior to the extent that we refuse to change what we believe. When we humble ourselves before God, we recognize that he knows more than we do and we submit to his guidance and instruction. As we submit, he is able to inform us. He tells us about things that we didn't know before. He explains things to us in greater detail. The new information that we receive is more reliable than the information we believed before and it empowers us to change our behavior in a lasting way.
For most of my life, I believed in an incorrect concept of repentance. Since coming to understand repentance better, I have had a greater appreciation for the following scripture:
"Wherefore, you are called to cry repentance unto this people.
And if it so be that you should labor all your days in crying repentance unto this people, and bring, save it be one soul unto me, how great shall be your joy with him in the kingdom of my Father!" (D&C 18:14-15)
Preaching repentance is rough! It's rough because, first of all, you have to find people who recognize that they need to repent. When you start preaching repentance, it is shocking to realize how many people don't fall into this category. Even after you find the few who do, it quickly becomes apparent that most of those people are more interested in only changing a few superficial behaviors as opposed to radically changing foundational beliefs. Because foundational beliefs affect more than just one or two behaviors, some are reluctant to get rid of their beliefs because there are still a few behaviors they aren't willing to let go of. They are only interested in cutting a few leaves, as opposed to pulling the whole weed out by its roots.
Because true repentance is so rare, this scripture has recently taken on a depth of meaning that I really didn’t understand before. You can, literally, labor all your days crying repentance and you can have so little success that just one soul’s repentance would bring you an indescribable amount of joy.