Forgivness: My Burden Was Made Light

The latest Mormon Messages feature on YouTube tells the story of Christopher Williams who lost his wife who was pregnant along with two of their children in 2007 car accident.  The driver of the car who struck them was a 17 year-old young man who was intoxicated.  President James E Faust referenced this story in his conference talk entitled The Healing Power of Forgiveness.  

“I am grateful that God allows tragedy and trials to occur in our lives.  Not because they are easy or because they are desired, but because they help us love.  That too is a wonderful blessing because I saw my brother coming to know a man of sorrow and one who was acquainted with grief.  As I have now come to understand it, this is really why I was sent here.  It has been incredibly difficult to have to learn those lessons the way that I have learned them, but I have always ended those episodes of greif with an assurance and hope that one day perhaps I shall see Him as he is.  One day, hopefully, I will be like Him.  And one day I will be with my wife again as well as the rest of my family, and that’s what keeps me going forward.”

Revelations 7

13 And one of the elders answered, saying unto me, What are these which are arrayed in white robes? and whence came they?

14 And I said unto him, Sir, thou knowest. And he said to me, These are they which came out of great tribulation, and have washed their robes, and made them white in the blood of the Lamb. 

15 Therefore are they before the throne of God, and serve him day and night in his temple: and he that sitteth on the throne shall dwell among them. 

16 They shall hunger no more, neither thirst any more; neither shall the sun light on them, nor any heat.

17 For the Lamb which is in the midst of the throne shall feed them, and shall lead them unto living fountains of waters: and God shall wipe away all tears from their eyes.

More information about Christopher Williams story http://bit.ly/9EKXLH and http://bit.ly/8Uacvc

Why We Forgive

I have heard from multiple people that I know that I need to read the book "Bonds that Make us Free" by C. Terry Warner, Ph.D which amongst other things focuses on forgiveness in relationships and repairing those relationships.  Below is an excerpt from a recent speech he gave on this topic:

Let people repent. Let people grow.

"I can’t tell you the number of couples I have counseled who, when they are deeply hurt or even just deeply stressed, reach farther and farther into the past to find yet a bigger brick to throw through the window “pain” of their marriage. When something is over and done with, when it has been repented of as fully as it can be repented of, when life has moved on as it should and a lot of other wonderfully good things have happened since then, it is not right to go back and open up some ancient wound that the Son of God Himself died trying to heal.

Let people repent. Let people grow. Believe that people can change and improve. Is that faith? Yes! Is that hope? Yes! Is it charity? Yes! Above all, it is charity, the pure love of Christ. If something is buried in the past, leave it buried. Don’t keep going back with your little sand pail and beach shovel to dig it up, wave it around, and then throw it at someone, saying, “Hey! Do you remember this?” Splat!

Well, guess what? That is probably going to result in some ugly morsel being dug up out of your landfill with the reply, “Yeah, I remember it. Do you remember this?” Splat.

And soon enough everyone comes out of that exchange dirty and muddy and unhappy and hurt, when what God, our Father in Heaven, pleads for is cleanliness and kindness and happiness and healing.

Such dwelling on past lives, including past mistakes, is just not right! It is not the gospel of Jesus Christ. It is worse than Miniver Cheevy, and in some ways worse than Lot’s wife, because at least there he and she were only destroying themselves. In these cases of marriage and family and wards and apartments and neighborhoods, we can end up destroying so many, many others."

Elder Jeffrey R. Holland "Remember Lot's Wife" BYU Devotional January 19, 2009

There are only two elements that separate us from the Holy Spirit

I have been studying more of the talk that was given by Elder Bushe referenced in my last post and found the following quote:

"Paul declared to the Romans the indispensable need to live our lives by faith, as he says: "For whatsoever is not of faith is sin" (Romans 14:23). The original word in the Bible for the word sin is hamartia. The word hamartia means "missing the mark," deriving from the sport of archery. In modern English we would probably call it "shooting an air ball." When we do not do everything in our life in faith or, in other words, under the influence of the Holy Spirit, we are missing the mark. We are off target. When we are off target, we will not feel the confidence and joy and power of the Holy Spirit, and, therefore, we will have to learn to direct our desires toward repentance--we must change to bring us back on target. In my humble understanding, it can be said that there are only two elements that separate us from the Holy Spirit: First, our lack of desire to repent, and, second, our lack of desire to forgive."

Elder F. Enzio Bushe "Unleashing the Dormant Spirit" BYU Devotional May 14, 1996