Experiencing failure is part of our mortal existence, but through the Atonement of Jesus Christ, we can grow through those mistakes and progress toward perfection.
We will all make mistakes and experience failure at various points in our lives. It is an inevitable part of being a human in this fallen world, but our shortcomings can still make us feel discouraged. In his address titled “Until Seventy Times Seven,” Elder Lynn G. Robbins introduces a different perspective on mistakes and offers us a message of hope when he teaches that “our success, then, isn’t going from failure to failure, but growing from failure to failure.”
Elder Robbins acknowledges that in mortality “failures would be a daily occurrence for us.” But Elder Robbins also shares that God was aware we would make mistakes and accounted for them in his great plan. Instead of losing hope when we encounter failure, we can recognize our mistakes as stepping stones that bring us closer to reaching our divine potential.
Photo by Edward Howell
Through the enabling power of the Atonement of Jesus Christ, we are able to fully repent of our sins and overcome any setbacks. As we earnestly reflect on and learn from mistakes, we can continue to move forward with hope and, as Elder Robbins says, “without any loss of enthusiasm.” Failure enables us to grow and change. As we access Jesus Christ’s atoning sacrifice and make the conscious effort to progress by continually refining ourselves, we can move one step closer each day to becoming more like Christ.
While we should not intentionally seek out sin just for growth experiences, we can be comforted with the knowledge that, when we inevitably do sin, there is hope in God’s plan for us to continue to grow. The next time we face a challenge, make a mistake, or feel like we have failed, we can choose to “come unto Christ, and be perfected in him” (Moroni 10:32).
Read “Until Seventy Times Seven” by Elder Lynn G. Robbins to learn more about how Christ’s Atonement can help us grow from mistakes.
Source: General Conference
—Abby Christensen, Latter-day Saint Insights
FEATURE IMAGE BY BRETT JORDAN
Find more insights
Read Sam Niven’s Latter-day Saint Insights article “Our Guiding Mistakes” to learn more about receiving forgiveness for our sins.
Take a look at Elder Jeffrey R. Holland’s general conference talk “Be Ye Therefore Perfect—Eventually” to better understand how we can become perfected through Christ.