Is Repentance Really Easier Than We Think?

[Guest Mores]

I was reading the following:

Quote

And it came to pass that I did frankly forgive them all that they had done, and I did exhort them that they would pray unto the Lord their God for forgiveness. And it came to pass that they did so. And after they had done praying unto the Lord we did again travel on our journey towards the tent of our father.

 -- 1 Ne 7:21

My son made an interesting observation.  It doesn't say "after they had been forgiven..." It says "after they had done praying..."

We pondered that for a moment.  I wondered about how people were back in the day.  I thought about the way people behaved back then.  How many people today would suffer death than make a promise he didn't want to keep?  How many supposedly evil people would be like that?  Make a vow on the spot -- even under duress -- and everyone simply expected him to keep it.  And it was usually so.

We're told virtually since birth that changing our behavior is very difficult.  What if it isn't?  What if changing our thinking is also very simple?  I remember the movie K-Pax where the main character (Prot) asked why the psychiatrist hadn't cured these patients yet.  The psychiatrist, of course, said he was working on it.  But it takes time.  Prot proved him wrong and cured one of his patients right away.

What if we not only receive forgiveness that easily, but we can truly change that easily?  What if that is the truth of the gospel?  What if this idea of "slow change" is a modern invention?  What if a paradigm shift can happen overnight?

I know Laman and Lemuel eventually went back to their old ways.  But it seems it was a long time before they did something like that again.  It seems that they did repent very quickly and received forgiveness just as quickly.

What if we're thinking of the concept of repentance and change in a fabricated modern way?