Talk

This is a story by Elder Packer that helps me understand repentence. Now, if you suppose some of you because of mistakes you have already made, think that you have lost your future. Let me in conclusion teach you this—one more inoculation:
For a number of years I found relaxation in carving and painting songbirds, at times spending a full year on a single carving. That suggests how much time I had now and again. Once I had a newly finished carving on the back seat of a car driven by Elder A. Theodore Tuttle. He hit the brakes suddenly and the carving was thrown to the floor and damaged.
Elder Tuttle felt terrible, supposing he had ruined a year’s work. When I waved aside his apologies, he said, “You sure don’t seem to be upset about it.” To reassure him, I said “Don’t worry, I made it; I can fix it.” Actually it had been broken and fixed many times while I was working on it.
Later Brother Tuttle likened that experience to lives, broken or badly damaged, supposedly ruined with no hope of repair, not knowing that there is a Maker, a Creator, who can fix any of his creations no matter how hopelessly broken they seem to be.