the author of forgiveness

 

This is the beginning of the miracle of forgiveness….that moment when anger changed to remorse.

 

Forgiveness: My Burden Was Made Light - YouTube

 

www.youtube.com/watch?v=E7zwQ_7q-fU

                8 min - Jul 28, 2010 - Uploaded by Mormon Channel

 

 

Elder Osguthorpe: I agree. It’s truly a miracle. One minute they want to kill Nephi, and then

their hearts soften and they plead for forgiveness.

Sister Osguthorpe: But for me, the even greater miracle was how Nephi responded. His brothers

had just tried to kill him, and how did Nephi respond when his brothers asked him to forgive

them? Did he become defensive? Did he remind them of how cruel they had been to him? Did he

dig in his heels? Did he rub it in? No! He “frankly forgave them.”    ……

 

Every time we forgive ourselves, our own capacity to love others increases.

And every time we forgive others, our capacity and their capacity to love can increase. This is

when we know that we are coming closer to the Lord.

We learn our way back home to our Father in Heaven and his Son Jesus

Christ by developing a forgiving heart.

We become like the Savior. We forgive as He forgives. We love as He loves.

A forgiving heart demands one of the most important types of learning we can experience in mortality.

A forgiving heart can change a marriage. It can change a family.

When we no longer can be offended or hurt, everything gets better. Hate can be turned into love.

Pain can disappear. All because of a forgiving heart.

So we invite each of us to make some decisions. We can all decide to see

things through the eyes of others. We can all decide to never shift blame. We can all decide to not take offense.

And then we can become determined to move forward to leave the mistake

behind. And when we do that, success will come.

And when we experience success in our own efforts to forget the past and

move forward, our desire grows, and we develop a forgiving heart. Each one of us can develop a

forgiving heart. We know it because each of us is a child of God, the author of forgiveness, the

One who forgets our sins and remembers them no more. Each of us can become more like Him.

And the way to do that is to develop a forgiving heart.

I know that God the Father and his Son Jesus Christ live. They love us. I

know that the Savior came to earth not only so that we could be forgiven of every wrong that we

commit, but He came to help us learn how to forgive as He forgives. His example is priceless.

He showed us what it means to forgive. And He continues to show us what it means to feel

forgiven. There’s nothing better than this feeling. It is a feeling of joy both for the one who’s

forgiven and the one who forgives. I bear witness that this joy is available to all of us. This

unspeakable, strength-giving joy is a free gift and a freeing gift. I know that we can experience

this sacred gift every time we seek or offer forgiveness.

I bear this witness in the name of Jesus Christ, amen.

 

From the talk by

 

Lolly S. and Russell T. Osguthorpe

 

“I Did Frankly Forgive Them”