Forgiveness -- that thing we all need to do but just can't always find the strength to do. It is easy to be hurt and offended by the careless actions of others. What is not so easy is to forgive them for these actions. These actions which sometimes effect us directly and sometimes don't have anything to do with us. Why is this?
For me it honestly is probably pride. Why should I be the one to forgive when they never even apologized. The humbling fact is they probably don't even know or realize that they have hurt or offended you. We hold the ball in our hands. It's our choice if we harbor these feelings of hurt and hatred or if we just let it go and move on.
I love what Elder Kevin R. Duncan says, "Even though we may be a victim once, we need not be a victim twice by carrying the burden of hate, bitterness, pain, resentment, or even revenge. We can forgive, and we can be free!"
If we can be free why not free ourselves? Why is Satan so good at making us think we are getting so much out of this grudge we are holding? When in reality the only one that wins from this is him! We don't, we don't win at all! I've seen the effects of this hate, bitterness, pain, resentment, and revenge in my own life and in the life of others. It is never fun and it is never pretty.
While I sit here in this bitterness and hatefulness I think to myself: who has these exact same feelings against me? I'm not perfect and I'm positive I offend people without even realizing it. What makes their pain and resentment any less than what I may feel towards another?
Elder Duncan continues later, "Too often we look at the offender the way we would look at an iceberg--we see only the tip and not beneath the surface. We do not know all that is going on in a person’s life. We do not know their past; we do not know their struggles; we do not know the pains they carry."
Honestly all we know is what social media is portraying to us. Or what we heard through the gossip vine, which is nothing. The view we receive from social media is so skewed, it's ridiculous. But that's a completely different note.
As I realize how much people don't know me or my life, it helps me realize that I truly don't know anybody else's life. I don't know what their fears are, the trails they are facing, what causes the tears to fall on their pillow each night, what love one they've lost, or even there tiny victories in life.
But I do know something. I know that they are a child of God. A loving God. A God that has so much love for them that He sent His Son, Jesus Christ to live and die for them. Just like how He loved me so much that He did the exact same thing for me.
"Forgiveness is the very reason God sent His Son, so let us rejoice in His offering to heal us all. The Savior’s Atonement is not just for those who need to repent; it is also for those who need to forgive."
The Atonement not only heals us from our sin, it enables us to be better people than we are naturally, to love others, to forgive them, and to forgive ourselves. The power that we can obtain from the Atonement is more than we can imagine.
Let us stop being victims of ourselves and fully embrace the atonement and all that it has to offer us. "Forgiveness is a glorious, healing principle. We do not need to be a victim twice. We can forgive."