What did you learn?`

"Self-Forgiveness requires a mature understanding of the purpose of life, which is not to get back to God in the same state of innocence and purity we were in when we left him. Rather our charge here is to learn the compassion, Humility, discipline and understanding of good and evil that come only with experience and risk, failure and resilience. Our charge is to get back to god much, much wiser and better than when we left him, something we can accomplish only through traveling the bruising roads of triumph, satisfaction and ultimate joy."

We all have our stories we all have a past we all have trials we all have experiences we are ashamed of or things we wish to take back.

That’s what makes us human, we are not perfect and we never will be perfect. We shouldn’t have expectations that are never attainable; having such high expectations will leave us with feelings of failure over and over. All we can DO is learn to be better, from our own stories and others shared.  

Depression, anxiety, shame, or anger can distort one's understanding of gospel principles, even if the calm, rational self knows better. The fearful or shameful part of you may periodically hijack the mature; capable you that usually runs your life. This fearful part may have different ideas about god and his plan than the rest of you. 

We attain perfection through experience with imperfection! 

"God tells us plainly that it will be hard and lonely here: that we will not be protected from struggle, loss, the sins of others, or personal failure: and that Christ is the great redeemer--not the Great Preventer. Still God promises that the plan of agency, error and redemption is worth both pain and failure. 

“The path toward grace and self-forgiveness starts here-with understanding that god’s plan is based on the expectation that each of us will be mortal, fallible, fallen. While he offers us the privilege of living his laws and rejoices when we do, He understands that learning to cherish what He cherishes takes experience. While he is delighted when we avoid sin and saddened by the harm that sinful behavior causes, He judges us less by the number of our misdeeds than by the depth of our repentance. We can trust Him to always be close at hand, gently whispering, “What did you learn?”

I learn more with each and every experience both the good and the bad experiences. Each have a purpose and each have had a way of blessing my life for the better.