"...repent and return unto me with full purpose of heart..." (3 Nephi 10:6)

Laundry, laundry, laundry. I have a lot of laundry to do. Sometimes, if I don't stay on top of it, it feels like it is a mountain that needs to be climbed. But, it's just laundry...that needs to be washed and then dried and then folded and put away and then worn and then washed again. Some people have the real luxury of having someone else do their laundry and they can "send it out" and pretend they don't even do laundry. But reality is, we all get our clothes dirty. Even if we were to just throw away the clothes we wear and refuse to do laundry, we would be denying the fact that we got our clothes dirty. Some might even say, well, I don't because I don't drop anything on them. Well...they start to stink after a while and they still need to be cleaned. Some people may just wear dirty clothes all the time and not even notice they are even dirty because they haven't done laundry for so long.

Well, guess what...we can do "laundry" every day and be clean and it's not a burden or feel like we are climbing a mountain. (And sometimes, climbing a mountain is wonderful. It is a joy to have a higher view from the top of the mountain and then see all that is accomplished once we have climbed it.) Laundry is really a form of repentance. "The Old Testament was written in Hebrew and the word used for this concept of repentance is 'shube:'" (Elder Theodore M. Burton) meaning to turn, as in turn away from sin or return to the Father. In doing laundry we are trying to return our clothes to their original state of cleanliness. Laundry is a necessary part of life. Laundry can actually help us slow down and take time to ponder and "get a fresh view" of things in our life.The pondering time laundry offers can be invaluable. Just as repentance is invaluable and is there to give us a "fresh view". The beautiful translation from the Greek word that repentance is taken "denotes a change of mind, i.e., a fresh view about God, about oneself, and about the world. Since we are born into conditions of mortality, repentance comes to mean a turning of the heart and will to God, and a renunciation of sin to which we are naturally inclined" (Bible Dictionary). Repentance is talked about over and over and the Lord has "called after you and is still calling after you" (Alma 5:7). The question is whether or not we want to follow His call to repent, to return to Him. Notice, there is no a mention of suffering in that definition of repentance. There is only a turning. Turning to God. 


Repentance can also mean "conversion" (see Matt. 3:2 footnote a). God wants us to be converted to Him, to be totally committed to righteous, clean living. Why? Because He knows we are "blessed and happy...[when we] keep the commandments of God...[we] are blessed in all things, both temporal and spiritual; and if [we] hold out faithful to the end [we] are received into heaven, that thereby [we] may dwell with God in a state of never-ending happiness" (Mosiah 2:41)! That is why our Father in Heaven and Jesus Christ want us to repent, so we can be with them, now, in our happiness and in our life by following them here, and in the life to come. He doesn't want us to send our laundry, or our repenting out to someone else, thinking that we can buy our way out of our sins or out of our troubles. He wants us to turn our hearts to Him on our own. It is what He asks of us (D&C 4:2). Because when we send our laundry out, we think we don't need Him and we rely upon ourselves and say "there is no God" (Psalms 14:1; Alma 11:24; 2 Nephi 2:13). And in reality, the only way things are ever going to be completely clean, completely "blotted out" is if we "repent...and [are] converted" (Acts 3:19) to Christ.


Be converted to Christ, not to man, or to money or to self or to stuff. They can't "clean" us, but through the atonement, the sacrifice that Christ made, we can be clean and our hearts are changed. We must "apply the atoning blood of Christ that we may receive forgiveness of our sins, and our hearts may be purified (this is conversion); for we believe (this is faith) in Jesus Christ, the Son of God, who created heaven and earth, and all things " (Mosiah 4:2). This is how we can get completely clean, every day of our lives. It isn't a one time application, but as we daily apply the atonement in our lives, we "receive a remission of [our] sins, and [have] a peace of conscience, because of the exceeding faith [we have] in Jesus Christ" (Mosiah 4:3). We can and do become clean and more holy and we can learn "the difference between the holy and profane, and...to discern between the unclean and the clean" (Ezekiel 44:23, see also Leviticus 10:10). We don't have to walk around in dirty clothes, i.e. our sins, because "the Lord shall have washed away the filth" (2 Nephi 14:3-4).

As we do our daily laundry, remember that it is the Lord we are returning to. He loves us and wants us home. He will help us do all the cleaning, all our repenting, that we need to in our lives, every day. He will never give up on us. "How oft will I gather you as a hen gathereth her chickens under her wings, if ye will repent and return unto me with full purpose of heart" (3 Nephi 10:6). Repentance is a simple, daily task with a major blessing that helps us "always remember Him" (D&C 20:77,79). This I testify is how to do laundry.