Education Week: Brad Wilcox encourages to make repentance a process of progression rather than perfection

Bradley R. Wilcox spoke to a class of over 100 people in the Wilkinson Student Center during BYU Education Week on Aug. 20.

Wilcox began his class by addressing the happiness of members of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, drawing from a study of 86,000 youth who reported significantly higher standards of happiness and lower rates of suicide and depression as active members of the Church.

Wilcox stated that the meaning to draw from this study was that despite being a follower of Jesus Christ, life will still be hard, but it is not as dark as popular culture leads some to believe.

We can let the joy of the saints sink deep into our hearts, Wilcox said.

Wilcox was sustained as the First Counselor in the Young Men General Presidency in 2023 and served in that calling until he was released earlier this year. He is currently a professor at BYU in the Ancient Scripture Department, and is the author of "The Continuous Atonement." 

He is widely known for his BYU devotional address His Grace Is Sufficient, which he drew similar themes to during his evening class.

Worthiness is not flawlessness, Wilcox said. It is honesty, and it is trying.

Wilcox explained the principle of repentance as an ongoing, imperfect process and warned the audience against the temptation of discouragement to halt their progression.

Strength too easily won isnt strength. Change without challenge isnt change, Wilcox said.

Wilcox also counseled that repentance and calling upon grace is supposed to take time as it involves a deep level of learning, growing, and progressing.

It is a process that is helping us become more like Heavenly Father and Jesus Christ.

Nancy Yochum, BYU education week attendee of 28 years, said after Wilcoxs class that repentance feels more hopeful.

You just have to repent and move forward because God has already forgiven you, we came here to be imperfect, that's why Christ died for our sins, Yochum said.

You never give up, Judy Knold, another attendee and life-long convert to The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints said. Even after you make mistakes you never give up on the Lord.

Wilcox closed his class after encouraging all in attendance that they have what it takes to be successful in this life and the process of repentance is meant to last their rest of their life.

Time becomes the medium in which the power of Christs Atonement is made manifest in our lives. Just be willing to start one more time, Wilcox said.