Teancum

While I agree that it's never to late to repent and be forgiven, prior to leaving this mortal realm, I would argue that the prodigal son did not receive a full inheritance again, upon his return. As a reference, the father, speaking to the elder son, says: "Son, thou art ever with me, and all that I have is thine." Hence, while the prodigal son's father completely forgave him for his poor decision, the consequences of that decision remained. In other words, the prodigal son had already spent his portion of his father's earthly estate, and although he was forgiven, he was in no way entitled to his brother's portion of their father's estate and would subsequently not be receiving an earthly inheritance upon his father's passing. That being said, as our Father's heavenly estate is not limited, we can all inherit all that the Father has. However, we cannot get back the blessings that are lost as a result of sin. For example, if I choose to engage in riotous living for 10 years, placing the gospel on the back burner, I can certainly repent, be forgiven, and one day inherit all that the Father has. What I can't do, is get back those 10 years and the blessings, learning, and spiritual development that could have accompanied them had I been righteous. Similarly, in regards to Alma the Younger, while I agree that his poor choices during his early years serve as a good teaching point for his children, and for all of us, I would look at this more as making the best of a bad situation. Put another way, Christ never sinned, yet he is considered the Master Teacher. Thus, one could extrapolate that experience is not a prerequisite of effective and powerful teaching. What's more, Alma now has to live with the knowledge that his poor example, and unrighteous choices, caused others to fall away. While he of course is not ultimately held accountable for the choices of others, I imagine that this was a consequence that caused him sorrow as he looked back on his life - and was also not something that went away simply because he repented and was forgiven. Subsequently, it should be noted that while our sins our washed away, allowing us to avoid eternal punishment and receive blessing in the future, the consequences and repercussions that resulted from our poor choices are not washed away. Restitution should of course be made to the extent possible, as part of the repentance process, but - as pointed out earlier - full restitution is rarely possible. In response to the following post by Traveler: How much is changed through repentance? I believe the answer is that we receive blessings. But are the blessings the same, better, or less than if we had remained faithful? Let me give one possible example. Let us suppose that at general conference President Monson asks us all to read the Book of Mormon over the next 6 months and that if we will complete the task we will be granted special (or additional) blessings of peace and prosperity through difficult times coming. We then start out reading but by time we get to 2nd Nephi we are occupied by other things and do not complete the task within the requested 6 months. Thus we lose the blessing we were promised by President Monson. But then a year later as things become difficult in our lives we repent and over the following year complete a reading of the Book of Mormon. Should we now expect the same blessings that were initially promised? I would have to say that we don't necessarily receive better or worse blessings, we receive different blessings. In other words, if you chose not to read the Book of Mormon in six months, as President Monson asked, then you have lost the promised blessing for accomplishing that task. However, if down the road you decide to read the entire Book of Mormon, you will of course be blessed for your righteous choice; but the blessings received will be those associated with your choice to read the Book of Mormon, not those promised by the prophet for completing the specified task. Put another way, if I told you that I'd give you $20 dollars to mow my lawn on Saturday June 21 and you choice to do something else, then that ship has sailed. You can never again receive $20 for mowing my lawn on June 21. However, that doesn't mean that you won't be compensated later, maybe even with $20, for mowing my lawn at some other point in the future. Even if you do mow my lawn the next Saturday, you've still only received $20 for mowing my lawn once, instead of the $40 you could have had if you chose to mow my lawn twice. In essence then, the moral of the story is that while you can't change the past, or reclaim lost blessings and opportunities - unless you have a DeLorean - you can shape the future and ensure that your choices going forward are better than those made in the past.