Sumner Posted September 11, 2016 Report Share Posted September 11, 2016 I work at a day treatment center for kids with behavior problems. One of the teenagers is obsessive compulsive about religion and is convinced she is going to hell for the littlest of things (like not flossing her teeth). Her therapist helped calm her by explaining that Joseph Smith probably didn't floss his teeth but is still going to heaven. Her therapist is not LDS and I know she would appreciate help from an LDS perspective. Can someone please send me links of talks and/or scriptures about the forgiveness and love of God? About how he doesn't expect us to be perfect? I know that they won't magically cure her but I believe they might give her some comfort. I really want to help this girl. Amym73 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Posted September 11, 2016 Report Share Posted September 11, 2016 Quote "Please don’t nag yourself with thoughts of failure. Do not set goals far beyond your capacity to achieve. Simply do what you can do, in the best way you know, and the Lord will accept of your effort." -Gordon B. Hinckley Quote That was the one that immediately came to mind. I'll spend some time digging for more. I have a YW in my class with similar struggles. She is also working with a counselor, and that's important, but I think an important part of her recovery is meeting regularly with the bishop. He has spiritual insights and what's more, a stewardship over her that allows him to receive inspiration to help her have the spiritual perspective she needs. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Posted September 11, 2016 Report Share Posted September 11, 2016 Quote "But to what end were we created? We were created with the express purpose and potential of experiencing a fulness of joy.4 Our birthright—and the purpose of our great voyage on this earth—is to seek and experience eternal happiness. " -Dieter F. Uchtdorf Truths and Lies is an excellent message I just found, that directly addresses such despair as you describe in this girl. I hope she would be willing to read the whole thing, but especially the section that starts with, "LIE: I need to prove I'm worth loving by being perfect." She quotes Bonnie Parkin: Quote “Do we frequently reject the Lord’s love that He pours out upon us in much more abundance than we are willing to receive? Do we think we have to be perfect in order to deserve His love? When we allow ourselves to feel ‘encircled about eternally in the arms of his love’ (2 Nephi 1:15), we feel safe, and we realize that we don’t need to be immediately perfect.” Other quotes from the same message that I really like: Quote Although we can make choices that enable us to experience a heightened or a lesser degree of God’s love, 5 we can and should be partaking of God’s love now, even—and especially—in our imperfect state. We are worth loving because Christ thought that we were of enough worth to atone for us individually. Quote “May I speak, not to the slackers in the Kingdom, but to those who carry their own load and more; not to those lulled into false security, but to those buffeted by false insecurity, who, though laboring devotedly in the Kingdom, have recurring feelings of falling forever short. … There is a difference … between being ‘anxiously engaged’ and being over-anxious and thus underengaged. … We can distinguish more clearly between divine discontent and the devil’s dissonance, between dissatisfaction with self and disdain for self. We need the first and must shun the second, remembering that when conscience calls to us from the next ridge, it is not solely to scold but also to beckon.” - Neal A. Maxwell In other words, feelings of inadequacy and unworthiness don't come from God. They come from the adversary. Something I realized lately, and this is the gospel according to Eowyn on lds.net, is that Heavenly Father and the Savior invite, they do not condemn. They invite us to come to Them. They invite and implore us to repent. Jesus even invites us to cast our burdens on Him, and invites us to follow Him in the way of light and happiness. Hopelessness and berating guilt do not come from Him. The Spirit can move us to sincere remorse for actual sin, but guilt over things like not flossing are not from a True Source. Quote “save for those few who defect to perdition after having known a fulness, there is no habit, no addiction, no rebellion, no transgression, no offense exempted from the promise of complete forgiveness. … Restoring what you cannot restore, healing the wound you cannot heal, fixing that which you broke and you cannot fix is the very purpose of the atonement of Christ.” -Boyd K. Packer, emphasis mine I hope and pray for this sweet girl that she will be able to recognize the lies she's taken into her heart, and throw them out like the trash they are. Then that she will be able to replace them with truth: that she is unconditionally, deeply loved by Heavenly Father and Jesus. They want her to have joy! They want her to succeed. They want her to return Home. I hope she learns to trust that love. They would not set her up to fail. They know we are imperfect, and accept that in us. They only ask us to do our best to obey the commandments, and knowing that we have weaknesses, They provided an Atonement so that we can be made perfect- or, if you ask me, more accurately "whole"- through that Atonement. A very good talk on that subject is here: He Will Place You On His Shoulders and Carry You Home Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Sumner Posted September 13, 2016 Author Report Share Posted September 13, 2016 (edited) Thank you Eowyn for your help. I very much appreciate it! Edited September 13, 2016 by Sumner Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Posted September 14, 2016 Report Share Posted September 14, 2016 https://www.lds.org/general-conference/1995/10/perfection-pending?lang=eng https://www.lds.org/general-conference/1981/10/the-expanding-inheritance-from-joseph-smith?lang=eng https://www.lds.org/general-conference/1993/10/a-mighty-change-of-heart?lang=eng Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
zil Posted September 14, 2016 Report Share Posted September 14, 2016 Perfection Pending - the title alone is fabulous! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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