Don't turn back

Since working with Elder Boyd K. Packer on my mission 40 years ago, I
have had great admiration for the man. His teachings and example have
influenced my life for good. In his conference talk this month he
talked about the power of repentance and forgiveness. This is what I
found most profound in his talk.

He quoted Mosiah 26:30: "As often as my people repent will I forgive
them their trespasses against me."

Then he told the following story.

President Joseph Fielding Smith told me of a repentant woman
struggling to find her way out of a very immoral life. She asked him
what she should do now.

In turn, he asked her to read to him from the Old Testament the
account of Lot's wife, who was turned to a pillar of salt. Then he
asked her, "What lesson do you gain from those verses?"

She answered, "The Lord will destroy the wicked."

"Not so!" President Smith said that the lesson for this repentant
woman and for you is "Don't look back!"

"Strangely enough, ... the simplest and most powerful prevention and
cure for pornography, or any unclean act," President Packer said, "is
to ignore and avoid it. Delete from the mind any unworthy thought that
tries to take root. Once you have decided to remain clean, you are
asserting your God-given agency. And then, as President Smith
counseled, 'Don't look back.'"

Lehi taught that men are free and must be "free . . . to act for
themselves and not to be acted upon, save it be by the punishment of
the law at the great and last day" (2 Nephi 2:26).

"The old saying "The Lord is voting for me, and Lucifer is voting
against me, but it is my vote that counts" describes a doctrinal
certainty that our agency is more powerful than the adversary's will.
Agency is precious. We can foolishly, blindly give it away, but it
cannot be forcibly taken from us," President Packer said.

Read his complete talk at
http://lds.org/conference/talk/display/0,5232,23-1-1298-23,00.html.
Or listen at http://tinyurl.com/34569h5.

Picture of Boyd K. Packer and Russell M. Nelson from Mormon Times.