Skip to main content

Forgiveness

Today at church I heard a definition of forgiveness that I'd never heard nor even thought about before, and it stuck out a LOT at me: "Forgiveness is repentance for a failure to love."

Love who?  Love of God.  Love of others.  Love of self.  We are our own worst critics, and often the hardest person to forgive is ourself.  But as we learn to love ourselves, we learn to love God, and to forgive ourselves, implementing the Atonement in our lives.  As we learn to love God, and love as God loves, we are more open to speedy forgiveness of others.  I think Nephi had this down...his own brothers tried to take his life, and he "swiftly forgave" them.  That is just incredible.  And often we are slow to forgive (others and ourselves) for even trivial matters that really don't matter in the eternal scheme of things.

As we learn to love others, we automatically learn to expand out capacity to forgive.  And that brings blessings beyond compare!!!!!!  What a great gift this is, both to us and to others, from others, ourselves, and most importantly, from God.  It is such a great feeling to be forgiven, to realize that others love us, to realize that they understand our imperfections and know that through the Atonement, Christ fills in our shortcomings, perfecting us through His mercy and love.  It is great to feel that others recognize the change that happens in us and in our hearts.

Comments

Popular posts from this blog

Shades of Gray

Sometimes you think you've seen and heard it all. You look back on your life and think, "wow, I've been through everything." And you realize that you've been friendless, lost people close to you to the dreaded cancer, pretty much failed a class, missed work entirely, didn't know how you were going to pay your bills, been rejected by people you liked, felt lost and aimless, been rejected twice from the dream you've been dreaming, had the car die on you more times than you can count, and the list goes on. On the other hand, you've got amazing friends, the gospel in life, a positive and optimistic outlook, had the opportunity to be an EFY counselor, have an amazing family, travelled a ton, finally found what you want to do with your education, and the list goes on longer than the first. And then you think, again, "wow, I really HAVE been through everything!" And you think you know how to deal with anything that might come your way, because ...

10 Things I love about Hannaford

So originally I was going to do this in sarcasm...but then decided that I could actually come up with 10 things (in no specific order) I like about my job. Even though being a cashier at a grocery store is not ideal, it's a job, and...well, you'll see. 1. Going on break with my dad sometimes. Because, you know, we work in the same store. It's pretty cool. 2. I love the people I work with soooooo much! Mainly the ones during the day, because I don't know any of the high school kids that work evenings, because I rarely work evenings. 3. Being the "party animal". nuff said. 4. Watching a cashier ID someone for alcohol, and him telling us that he doesn't even have a photo ID since his license was taken away for DWI. Yeah, maybe he should rethink his purchase... 5. Now when I hear the name of a vegetable, I automatically think of its PLU. Dates: 3047. Cabbage: 4069. Bananas: 4011. Tree Ripe Peaches: 4044. Eastern Peaches: 4403. Nectarines: 4378....

Oh Happy Day!

So today I got and opened my mission call! I'm going to the Brazil Sao Paulo East Mission. I'll be speaking Portuguese. I report to the Brazil MTC on Wednesday, March 3, 2010. SO EXCITED!!!!!!!!!!!!