The Sorrowing of the Damned

Today I read Mormon 2 where the Nephites and the Lamanites engage once more in an ongoing battle. I know the Lamanites are constantly being painted as the bad guys of the Book of Mormon, but they really take the cake for me. I mean these guys never seem to get tired of killing the Nephites! They keep coming after them again and again and again. It really is kind of sad for the Nephites but at the same time you can only feel so sorry for the Nephites because they kind of bring it on themselves in the sense that they never repent at this point.

The one person I do feel sorry for, perhaps more than any other person in the entire Book of Mormon, is Mormon. He really had it rough and as he states in this chapter a continual scene of violence was continually before him ever since he was of the age to behold the workings of man. As I've mentioned before it is really tought to behold such scenes of sin when you are trying to live the gospel and so I really feel sorry for Mormon. The only other person I can feel quite as sorry for is Moroni. He also had it rough, he lived alone for over 40 years!

I thought today thought we would talk a little bit about godly sorrow. Mormon mentions in this chapter that he had great hopes for his people because they sorrowed but his hopes were in vain because it was the sorrowing of the damned. I have long known, probably since I was a missionary, that there is a difference in godly sorrow and regular sorrow. Regular sorrow is indeed the sorrow of the damned because it does not lead one to repent of their sins. For example if you do something wrong and get caught, most of the time you are only sorry that you were caught, otherwise you would have confessed and forsaken the behavior before the point where you were discovered, most of the time anyway.

However, godly sorrow is sorrow that leads to true repentance, that leads to changed behaviors. The best way to describe it that I know of is found in an old seminary video I saw when I was in seminary. It is about a girl who was in an interview for her living ordinance recommend to get married in the temple and she confessed to a sin in her past. When she was denied the recommend she exclaims what are my parents going to think. The bishop corrects her by telling her she ought to be more concerned with what the Lord will think. Godly sorrow is indeed being more concerned with what the Lord thinks of us than what others will think of us.

I have mentioned that when I was younger my mother used to remind me that every wrong I did caused the Savior to suffer more. To me that is part of being concerned with what God thinks. If the Nephites had been truly repentant of their sins, they would not have been sorrowful for their lost brethren and for the fact that the land was cursed. They would have been sorrowful because the land was cursed because of them! They would have been concerned with their standing before God. For those who have read the Doctrine and Covenants of the church, you know there are several revelations that came about because a certain person was concerned with their standing before the Lord. I have sought a blessing several times in my life for just such a reason, because I was concerned with what the Lord would have me do.

It is extremely important that when we repent we have godly sorrow and are not just sorrowful because we were caught. I'm pretty certain that we can't truly repent of our sins unless we have godly sorrow. Otherwise why would we repent? Prehaps it is possible but I think it would be next to impossible to change our nature and our behavior without it just like it was impossible for the Nephites to repent without it. As we strive to be more concerned with what God thinks of us than what mankind thinks of us, we will find it increasingly easier to do what is right. Until tomorrow.