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.
Labels:

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

To be or not to be...

...in this case, it is not the question but rather the answer. Today in Church a talk was given that brought up something important to me.  I am a "list person".  I have so many lists, because that is how I stay organized.  The most frequent list I make is a to-do list, generally before I go to bed for the next day (yes, I still have nightly planning sessions, hahahaha, picked that up from the mission!).  But in this talk, the speaker talked about how we like to-do lists because we can check things off as we finish.  But have we ever thought about a "To be" list?  So that got me thinking.  And tonight for my scripture study, I was pondering over this and decided that I also needed to make a "Not to be" list.  And these are lists that will stay with me for life, as I will never be perfect and will always be working on becoming more like Christ.  Because that is the ultimate goal of a "to be" list.  So here is the result of my study: T...
Post a Comment
Read more

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....
3 comments
Read more

Summertime is...over?!

Today is one of my last few days at my parents' house before I head back to BYU for my senior year.  The long road of college finally has a light at the end of the tunnel, and it looks reachable!  But this time next year, if all goes according to plan, I will be married and living in Brazil.  The last couple days have made me look back on my summer and think about all that has happened... So, this is going to be a long post, mostly because of pictures that are going to help me tell my summer 2013 story.  I came back to NH in April after winter semester ended, stayed for about a week and a half, and then I went to Brazil for 5 1/2 weeks.  And while I was there, some wonderful things happened..... Renato proposed to me at the Recife Temple the day I got to Brazil (the first time we'd seen each other in over 9 months), and I said yes!  So (finally) we are officially engaged and planning a wedding for July 22 2014, in Brazil! Our rings :) We ...
Post a Comment
Read more