Failing to Forsake

The final talk of the October 2016 General Conference was Repentance: A Joyful Choice by Elder Dale G. Renlund. In this talk, Elder Renlund quoted D&C 58:42-43, which reads "Behold, he who has repented of his sins, the same is forgiven, and I, the Lord, remember them no more. By this ye may know if a man repenteth of his sins—behold, he will confess them and forsake them." I understand how and why confession is an essential part of repentance, and I can almost understand it with forsaking, but there's just one problem: By evil design, sin can be terribly addicting, so forsaking one's sins can be very difficult, which could make repentance almost impossible.

Imagine a smoker who decides that it's a sin to smoke and who tries to repent of smoking by confessing the sin and forsaking it, but not long after he or she makes that decision, he or she gets a strong craving and gives in to the temptation to smoke a cigarette. Does that mean that they didn't truly forsake their sin earlier? Does that mean that they didn't truly repent?

Personally, I don't think that God would be quite so strict. He knows that habits can be hard to break. He's probably fairly lenient with those who make an honest effort to repent. We must try to forsake our sins, but I hope that God won't be too hard of those who have trouble with that. We might have difficulties forsaking our sins, but that doesn't necessarily mean that God will forsake us.

Repentance means change, and change often comes over time, in steps, and there may be some missteps along the way, but I don't think those missteps invalidate the first steps toward repentance. Forsaking sin is the result of the repentance process, and it is the ultimate goal of repentance, but it is a process. I certainly hope that failing to forsake a sin cold turkey isn't actually as detrimental as some interpretations of D&C 58:43 make it sound.b