Sabbath Day Scribblings - The Class to Forgive

Never sacrifice your class to get even with someone who has none.  Let them take the gutter; you take the high road.

“Of You It Is Required to Forgive”
President Gordon B. Hinckley
First Counselor in the First Presidency

A spirit of forgiveness and an attitude of love and compassion toward those who may have wronged us is of the very essence of the gospel of Jesus Christ. Each of us has need of this spirit. The whole world has need of it. The Lord taught it. He exemplified it as none other has exemplified it.

In the time of His agony on the cross of Calvary, with vile and hateful accusers before Him, those who had brought Him to this terrible crucifixion, He cried out, “Father, forgive them; for they know not what they do” (Luke 23:34).

None of us is called on to forgive so generously, but each of us is under a divinely spoken obligation to reach out with pardon and mercy. The Lord has declared in words of revelation: “My disciples, in days of old, sought occasion against one another and forgave not one another in their hearts; and for this evil they were afflicted and sorely chastened.

“Wherefore, I say unto you, that ye ought to forgive one another; for he that forgiveth not his brother his trespasses standeth condemned before the Lord; for there remaineth in him the greater sin.

“I, the Lord, will forgive whom I will forgive, but of you it is required to forgive all men.

“And ye ought to say in your hearts—let God judge between me and thee, and reward thee according to thy deeds” (D&C 64:8–11).

Forgiveness can be so very hard, but I have learned in my own life, that it is one of the things that bring me the most comfort of all.  When I am angry, I do not remember that the person I am angry with is a Child of God.  I do not remember that I too, make mistakes.  I only focus on what they have done to me or mine.  

When I forgive, I turn it all into the hands of a loving Heavenly Father, who knows their hearts better than I ever could.  He knows if they truly repent, or if they seek forgiveness and mercy for their sins.  I have need of that forgiveness for myself.  Who am I to deny it to anyone else.  

I know, that He alone is able to judge without anger or malice.  He alone, can make my own sins bearable to me.