Alma 24:10-13 -- On Repentance and Commitment to Change

"And I also thank my God, yea, my great God, that he hath granted unto us that we might repent of these things, and also that he hath forgiven us of those our many sins and murders which we have committed, and taken away the guilt from our hearts, through the merits of his Son.
And now behold, my brethren, since it has been all that we could do (as we were the most lost of all mankind) to repent of all our sins and the many murders which we have committed, and to get God to take them away from our hearts, for it was all we could do to repent sufficiently before God that he would take away our stain—
Now, my best beloved brethren, since God hath taken away our stains, and our swords have become bright, then let us stain our swords no more with the blood of our brethren.
Behold, I say unto you, Nay, let us retain our swords that they be not stained with the blood of our brethren; for perhaps, if we should stain our swords again they can no more be washed bright through the blood of the Son of our great God, which shall be shed for the atonement of our sins."
Alma 24:10-13


While we may not be murderers as is discussed in these verses, I think the idea behind this is still applicable, and noble. Sometimes we look at dramatic conversions in the scriptures and we think we want something similarly dramatic in our own lives, but I am not sure that we really comprehend the massive amount of effort people like Saul/Paul, Alma the Younger, or Zeezrom put in to seriously change their lives and to try to undo some of the harm that they had caused.

These verses show a similar effort... a people trying to undo the harm they had done by laying down their weapons and never taking them up again, and later in the story we see that they took their oath seriously enough to die for it. Maybe they--and we--can't always make up for the things that we have done wrong. We can't go back and undo it, or change the lasting outcome, but we can resolve to live differently, and take that committment seriously, relying on God and gaining the power to be new people through Christ. As we work to live better and holier lives, God will also take away the guilt from our hearts, and will teach us to be the kind of people that can live in a perfect society. Not all at once, but step by step. Today, let's take our steps towards that heavenly outcome by turning away from our sins and doing the work that it takes, both spiritual and physical, to be different and better.