“Sometimes you cannot give back what you have taken because you don’t have it to give. If you have caused others to suffer unbearably—defiled someone’s virtue, for example—it is not within your power to give it back. … Perhaps the damage was so severe that you cannot fix it no matter how desperately you want to. … Fixing that which you broke and you cannot fix is the very purpose of the atonement of Christ.
“When your desire is firm and you are willing to pay the ‘uttermost farthing’ [Matthew 5:25–26], the law of restitution is suspended. Your obligation is transferred to the Lord. He will settle your accounts” (“The Brilliant Morning of Forgiveness,” Ensign, Nov. 1995, 19–20).
