The parable of the tangled hair

My daughter has long beautiful hair.  She loves her long pretty hair (although not as much as I love it), but she hates to have it brushed.  I generally keep her hair in braids to prevent too many tangles from forming.  On Sunday, I take out her braids, then wash and brush her hair and usually leave it hanging down her back.  It takes a little while to get the tangles out, but it's not too horrible.  On Monday I brush her hair and put it in braids.  Then each day after I take out the braids, brush the hair again and rebraid it.   Last week was a bit different.  On Monday, I was forgetful and didn't braid her hair, nor did I brush it.  On Tuesday, I did not brush her hair or braid it either.  I looked at the hair and thought, this hair is going to get really tangled if I don't do something, but before I could do something, she was off to play with her friends.  By Wednesday morning, the hair was getting bad, but I was lazy and didn't feel like fighting her over the hair.  I put it in a quick ponytail, without brushing it, thinking that maybe it would stop the tangles from getting worse.  By Thursday, it was clear that this strategy hadn't worked.  Her hair was ridiculously tangled.  But I fixed the ponytail and let it be.  On Friday I was more interested in getting out of the house to play volleyball.  On Saturday we were busy cleaning the house and taking down Christmas decorations.  On Sunday, I had no choice but to deal with the badly neglected and unbelievably tangled hair.  I washed her hair.  I put a lot of conditioner in her hair.  And then I went to work.  I carefully started to brush her hair, starting from the bottom.  I worked slowly to try to avoid hurting her, but the rats nest on her head was not going to come loose without some pulling.  I tried to distract her and was a gentle as possible, but still I hurt her head at times.  After 40 minutes, I still wasn't done.  But the hair I had brushed was beautiful again.  We had to leave for church so I took a break and finished her hair later after church.  And once I had finished brushing her hair, I put it in braids to avoid pain and suffering next Sunday.

As I was brushing, I realized how this experience illuminates repentance and the wisdom of following the commandments and repenting quickly when we realize we have made mistakes.  We, like Sarah's hair, start out perfect.  But as we make choices, we inevitably make mistakes.  Our beauty is marred by tangles.  We can brush it out quickly and it can be a relatively painless process , just like repenting on a daily basis. We can take steps to prevent tangles from forming, like making efforts to keep the commandments and filling our time with positive things.  But if we ignore our problem and sins, they can become worse and more painful to resolve.  But, like Sarah's hair, even if we allow our lives to go wildly off track, there is always a way to fix it. Though repentance can be a painful experience, through Christ's atonement we can be beautiful.and whole again.