Forgive Yourself!
You've heard before that "your biggest critic is yourself". How incredibly right is that? The natural man tends to judge itself in every single aspect of life. You yelled at your little brother, or didn't eat your broccoli and suddenly you're feeling like there's no hope for a home in Heaven for you. Ok so maybe it's not that juvenile, but I recently talked to someone who felt as if he had committed a serious sin and that he wasn't worthy enough to go to church anymore. He felt that he had to punish himself because he thought his sin was unpardonable.
I know that there are so many of us out there that are "Judge Judy's" to ourselves and I'm here to tell you that the only judge is our Heavenly Father. Elder D. Chad Richardson explains how sinning is like spilling ketchup on your white shirt. The ketchup stain might always be there where we can see it, but our Heavenly Father no longer sees the stain, but the rest of the sparkly white shirt after we've repented. He also says "When we sin or make mistakes, our Heavenly Father wants us to quickly resume our journey home with a new and even stronger grip on the iron rod."
My Heavenly Father has been trying to teach my stubborn brain this lesson lately. When we sin, we need to repent, then FORGIVE ourselves! It's not our job to judge our worthiness or assign ourselves to a kingdom. It's our job to repent and continue on in life trying to do the best that we can. We shouldn't wallow in our sins and tell ourselves we'll never be worthy enough. My dad would say "build a bridge, and get over it". Repent and move toward your Savior! If you ever feel unworthy to go to church, I've been there and it's Satan that is telling you that. Church is a place for those of us trying to become better. A very intelligent man once said that the best smell in a church building was the smell of cigarette smoke, because it showed that people were coming to better themselves. Forgiving yourself is the key to a less anxious, just all around happier life! You'll feel like this!
http://www.lds.org/ensign/2007/03/forgiving-oneself?lang=eng
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