I believe that confession is an important part of the repentance process but I would also like to add a word of caution for those who are prone to confess their perceived sins and weaknesses to the Bishop, ward and other members. There are certain sins which require confession to those who are in authority or to those who have been wronged yet we should not dwell upon our sins after we have prayed to our Heavenly Father, sought forgiveness and received forgiveness through our faith. We should also avoid confessing our sins and weaknesses during sacrament talks, lessons and testimonies unless clearly prompted to do so by the spirit. There also isn't an exhaustive list of sins to be confessed to a Bishop or to others who we have wronged and therefore it requires an exercise in judgment on our part to determine which sins need to be confessed to a Bishop and which wrongs we need to confess to those whom we have wronged. It is obvious that such serious sins as adultery, murder and other serious sins should be confessed to a Bishop but it is also obvious that not all sins need to be confessed to another person. One way to determine whether you need to confess a sin is if you feel unworthy to partake of the sacrament several weeks in a row and willingly choose to decline the sacrament when it is offered to you. It is at this time that you should seek guidance from a Bishop so he can help you decide whether your sin is serious enough for you not to partake of the sacrament and whether further repentance is necessary. More often then not more repentance will not be required of you and you are being harder on yourself than your Heavenly Father would be. If we exercise faith in Christ, pray to our Heavenly Father for forgiveness, and cease to repeat the sin we have committed then we should move on. If we fall short of keeping the commandments after we have confessed to our Heavenly Father we should pick ourselves up and get back to keeping the commandments as best we can and as we strive to do what is right we will remain on the straight and narrow path and will be justified. I am not suggesting to anyone that they should not confess their sins to a Bishop if they feel the need to do so but I am strongly suggesting that this may not be necessary and may actually be harmful to their repentance process in some instances because it forces them to dwell on sins they have already dwelt with and resolved through prayer and repentance.
