Finding joy and gratitude through forgiveness

As I reflect on the many blessings that are available to us all, I am most grateful for the divine power of forgiveness in my life. One of my sweetest parenting moments followed a stressful and harrowing morning trying to get my then seven-year-old daughter out the door to school. That day I had yelled and said some things that I should not have said. In a moment of calm when I had accepted that being late for school was not an irreversible tragedy, I apologized to my daughter. I told her I was sorry for how I had acted. She looked into my eyes and said, “It’s okay mom. I forgive you.” I felt not only her pure forgiveness, but the love and joy our Heavenly Father must feel when we repent or forgive others.

I think that little children and Jesus Christ are the only perfect forgivers. True forgiveness requires us to surrender our pride, justifications and hurts. It requires faith to believe that God is the only one who sees our hearts, our souls, our intentions. If we accept Christ’s invitation to come unto him, he will bear us up along our path to forgiveness.

One of my favorite hymns proclaims, “How gentle God’s commands, how kind his precepts are…His goodness stands approved, unchanged from day to day; I’ll drop my burden at his feet and bear a song away.” God’s commandments are designed to lift us and to bring joy to our lives.

God has given us the two greatest commandments: to love him with all our might mind and strength, and to love our neighbor as ourselves, Mark 12:30-31. When it comes to my day-to-day interactions, I inevitably fall short of my desire to act and respond with love. There is much in this world to incite feelings of anger, hate, pride, envy and a host of other ugly reactions that accompany our fallen nature. Forgiveness is the key to access the divine love that God and his Son feel for us. Forgiveness makes it possible to love each other, even as we continue to offend, fall short, and stumble along our life path.

The Lord’s Prayer pleads, “forgive us our debts as we forgive our debtors” Matt 6:12. The Lord has promised us that he will forgive us when we repent of our sins. The power of Christ’s atonement is so vast and complete that he can heal any wound and give us the strength to overcome any trial or suffering through faith. But we cannot obtain full relief from our mistakes and trespasses while harboring hurts, grudges and annoyance toward others in our life.

The Lord clarifies the relationship between his and our forgiving this way: “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” Doctrine and Covenants 64:8-11.

The Lord’s forgiveness of our sins is conditional. We must repent to receive relief. But something beautiful occurs when we cultivate a spirit of forgiveness in our daily interactions. We can learn to forgive others, even and especially when they do not acknowledge fault. As we trust in the Lord and pray for divine help to forgive others we will be blessed. Our grudges and hard feelings will fall away. Through the power of Christ’s atonement our hearts can be cleansed of the hurt and betrayal we have harbored there. And when we let go of that ugliness, we are freed to feel the love that God has for each of us.

Amity Condie has lived in Palmer for 13 years and is a volunteer for The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.