What is a truly repentant attitude?

[OneEternalSonata]

So, I'm trying to work through some tough times in my life, at the moment, and this question came to mind. What is a truly repentant attitude? I figured if anyone could help me, aside from Father Above, my brothers and sisters here could! Any thoughts are welcome!

[SkyWishes]

This is a really good question and one I find myself wondering about some times too. When I've messed up in my life, I pray to Heavenly Father and ask to feel properly sorry for what I've done, to realise that what I've done is not good and to really feel it! Some times it could be like a little kid taking a cookie from the cookie jar. The little kid isn't going to feel bad about taking that cookie unless he/she knows that taken that cookie without asking is wrong. Do you know what you have done is wrong? If you do you feel guilty and that is part of how you should feel when you want to repent as you acknowledge you have sinned. The next part is to feel sorry for what you have done. So you feel bad and your sorry that you've messed up. The next part is that we are sorry for betraying our father in heaven and we are also sorry for betraying the descision we made before we came to Earth in the great war in heaven. The descision we'd follow Jesus Christ by sinning we dig those nails into our savior. The next part of the repentant attitude, I think, is to feel truly sorry for betraying those things. So in a nutshell. Realising what we've done wrong (the feeling guilty). Being sorry for what we've done (to ourselves and any one we've harmed). Then realising how we've betrayed our Father in Heaven and Jesus Christ. Perhaps not in that order. Anyway thats my idea and it's a good idea to pray to have these feelings if you are thinking, I know it was bad but I just don't feel bad about it kinda thing. Hope that helped! =)

[Misshalfway]

Perhaps Godly sorrow as the bofm describes or being willing to give up our sins to know God. Maybe it is also being willing to accept God's will for our behavior over our own....letting our will be swallowed up into his.

I think too often we are too hard on ourselves and we feel an incorrect proportion of guilt. Or perhaps the pain of the guilt sears us to severely and so we justify ourselves or get defensive or even angry.

Being sorry and being willing to change our course, repair any damage we may have caused and then move on in obedience.

[bytor2112]

During the process of setting my life in order, My Stake President told me that to be truly repentant.......we had to become the type of person that would never had committed those sins to begin with. That if we could travel back in time and be faced with those decisions, we would never choose the sin.

A "mighty" change of heart is what is required...and that takes time. A resolve to never recommit the sin and a determination to always do what the Lord requires. President Kimball said that we are not truly repentatnt unless we fulfill our duties. Attend all three hours, pray and fast, tithe and do our home teaching. Repentance is indeed developing a Christ like attitude in all things. Placing one s faith in the atonemnt is essential to change....allowing it to work a miracle and it will......it has in mine.

[rameumptom]

I think the Book of Mormon gives several great examples of people who were seeking forgiveness. Enos, the Lamanite king (Alma 22), Alma's repentance (Alma 36), and the Nephite people as they prayed when Jesus was with them, are examples.
The Lord often uses terms as broken heart and contrite spirit, to denote what sacrifice we are to offer Him. Those who sought repentance described their prayers as "crying to the Lord". When I think of the word, "crying", I think of tears, deep yearnings inside my soul, intense emotion to receive heavenly help.
I believe we all need to study these examples of repentance, notice the verbs and adverbs used to describe the events. Then ponder how we can also seek that level of desire, etc.

[Misshalfway]

Yes! Bytor and Ram. I love that passage in Mosiah, where it says that the people had "no more disposition to do evil."

[Loudmouth_Mormon]

Have you heard that Tracy Byrd song "The Truth About Men"?

It don't matter what line we give you when we come crawling in,
We ain't wrong, we ain't sorry, and its probably gonna happen again.

A repentant attitude is the exact opposite. You know you were wrong, you feel genuine sorrow, and you forsake your sin such that it won't happen again.

LM

[Tough Grits]

James A. Cullimore, “Confession and Forsaking: Elements of Genuine Repentance,” Ensign, Dec 1971, 85

President Harold B. Lee has expressed this so beautifully:

“That confession must be made first to him or her who has been most wronged by your acts. A sincere confession is not merely admitting guilt after the proof is already in evidence. If you have ‘offended many persons openly,’ your acknowledgment is to be made openly and before those whom you have offended that you might show your shame and humility and willingness to receive a merited rebuke. If your act is secret and has resulted in injury to no one but yourself, your confession should be in secret, and your Heavenly Father who hears in secret may reward you openly. Acts that may affect your standing in the Church, or your right to privileges or advancement in the Church, are to be promptly confessed to the bishop whom the Lord has appointed as a shepherd over every flock and commissioned to be a common judge in Israel. He may hear such confessions in secret and deal justly and mercifully, as each case warrants. … Following confession, one in sin must show forth the fruits of his repentance by good deeds that are weighed against the bad. He must make proper restitution to the limit of his power to restore that which he has taken away or to repair the damage he has done.” (Youth and the Church [Deseret Book Co., 1970], p. 99.)

Lesson 12: Repentance,” Aaronic Priesthood Manual 3, 42

“The mission of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints is to call people everywhere to repentance. Those who heed the call, whether members or nonmembers of the Church, can be partakers of the miracle of forgiveness. God will wipe away from their eyes the tears of anguish, and remorse, and consternation, and fear, and guilt. Dry eyes will replace the wet ones, and smiles of satisfaction will replace the worried, anxious look.

“What relief! What comfort! What joy! Those laden with transgressions and sorrows and sin may be forgiven and cleansed and purified if they will return to their Lord, learn of him, and keep his commandments. And all of us needing to repent of day-to-day follies and weaknesses can likewise share in this miracle” (The Miracle of Forgiveness [Salt Lake City: Bookcraft, 1969], pp. 367–68).

Kenneth L. Higbee, “Forgetting Those Things Which Are Behind,” Ensign, Sep 1972, 83

A newspaper editor, speaking to a college graduating class, asked, “How many of you have ever sawed wood? Let’s see your hands.”

Many hands went up.

Then he asked, “How many of you have ever sawed sawdust?”

No hands went up.

“Of course, you can’t saw sawdust!” he exclaimed. “It’s already sawed! And it’s the same with the past. When you start worrying about things that are over and done with, you’re merely trying to saw sawdust.”

Too many people make themselves miserable by dwelling needlessly on their past failures and mistakes. They lie awake at night agonizing over the mistakes they have made and what they should have done. Almost everyone occasionally does thoughtless, impulsive things that bring unpleasant consequences. Almost everyone occasionally misses golden opportunities through apathy or oversight. Almost everyone may be occasionally selfish or unkind.

We cannot help feeling despair over such occasions, but we should not feel as if we ought to be exiled from the human race simply because of them. In fact, mistakes are not only an acceptable part of life, but they may even be beneficial. The intelligent use of our mistakes helps us learn and grow; past failures may be guideposts to future successes. But our failures and mistakes can be constructive only if we analyze them, gain what profit we can from them, and then forget them.

Paul wrote, “… this one thing I do, forgetting those things which are behind, and reaching forth unto those things which are before.” (Philip. 3:13.) Many other people have recognized the fact that sometimes one of the best things we can do with the past is to forget it.

The Lord has promised us that he will forgive us if we repent, and that in fact he will remember our sins no more. (D&C 64:7; D&C 58:42.) Think for a moment about the significance of this promise. If we truly repent of a sin, then as far as the Lord is concerned we are as clean as if we had never committed that sin.

Just how to go about repenting has been expressed in many different ways, but an easy one to remember is the five “R’s” of repentance: (1) recognize you have done wrong; (2) feel remorse for the wrong; (3) resolve to change; (4) reform, or act on your resolve; and (5) make restitution for the wrong.

I thought these excerpts were eloquent and explained repentance and having a repentant attitude much better than I am capable of doing.

~TG

[Superbaldguy]

In reality, we are in need of a repentant attitude at all times, as we are constantly trying to overcome sin. The Atonement is infinite and eternal. Thank the Good Lord for His sacrifice and the enabling power of His grace, we would have no purpose in earth life.

[Hemidakota]

A somber and remorse soul.