Backsliding

Jeremiah talks several times about "backsliding Israel." Imagine that following the covenant path and striving to become like our Savior and returning to our Heavenly Father is like climbing a mountain. The way is steep and the climb is strenuous, and we will often slip and stumble as we work our way up to the top. But in order to backslide, we would need to deliberately turn our backs away from the top and slide back down. Stumbling is different from backsliding. When we stumble, we may lose our footing and even slip down a ways, but we are still facing in the right direction. The Lord has given us His scriptures and the gift of the Holy Ghost as an iron rod that we may hold onto when our feet give way so that when we trip we do not need to fall very far. Climbing up the mountain is hard, and we will get more than a little battered and bruised in our struggle to climb ever higher. But turning our back from reaching the top and choosing to backslide down the mountain does not spare us from the bumps and bruises. On the contrary, we will do much more damage to ourselves backsliding because we will start accelerating in our descent and we will have less control over avoiding the rocks that jut up to batter us on our way down. The Lord understands it is a steep path and as long as we are facing towards Him, then our slips and our stumbles are but momentary setbacks, and as long as we continue to face Him, He can inspire us with visions of what it will be like when we reach the top. But if we turn away from Him to backslide, then He cannot help us and can only watch on with heartbreaking sadness and pity as we destroy ourselves. We can only backslide when we turn away from our Heavenly Father. As long as we are facing Him, Repentance is as simple as picking ourselves back up when we stumble and continuing the climb, but if we are backsliding, then the very first step is to turn and face Him, so that we may begin the climb anew.