Repentance

Tonight was one of those busy nights of motherhood...husband worked late, kids were rambunctious, and the laundry was in sore need of some attention. In the shuffle of things, I hadn't paid too much attention to what Mason was doing.  I emerged from the kitchen to see him vigorously rubbing a dry dish cloth on my couch cushions.  Then I noticed the open pen on the floor next to him.  My suspicions were confirmed as I moved closer to see pen marks all over the cushions.  My first reaction was to be upset, but almost as quickly as I felt angry, my heart melted at the sight of him trying so hard to fix what he had done wrong.  Not only had he realized he had done something wrong, but he had taken the initiative to go find a dish cloth to try to fix it.  His little one year old hands were working so hard to try to erase those marks!  But both his dad and I knew that no matter how hard he rubbed that dish cloth against the couch, it was going to take more to get those cushions clean. So we got out some cleaner and went to work. Mason insisted on staying to help us as we worked for quite some time to remove those marks.

As I pondered on this situation tonight, I couldn't help but think of how my Heavenly Father was using this experience to teach me a lesson about repentance.  I think our Father in Heaven's heart is softened towards us when we are repentant and are trying to do what we need to to make things better.  Hard as we try, we are all just like Mason rubbing a dry dish cloth on a soiled couch...we can never fix what we have done wrong by our own efforts.  We need the Savior to step in and help us...because he has the power to fix what we can't.