The Savior Wants to Forgive

I had just finished skimming through Elder D. Todd Christofferson’s April 2011 General Conference talk, The Divine Gift of Repentance, when I decided to take a look at the visiting teaching message for July—which just happens to be, “ Divine Attributes of Jesus Christ: Forgiving and Merciful”. I read through that, and then I did a quick search on LDS.org about forgiveness—and one of the things that popped up in the search results was a link to “The Savior Wants to Forgive,” a General Conference talk by Elder Craig A. Cardon. And just that title hit me and I knew that sentence is something the Savior wants all of us to know—He WANTS to forgive. It’s not just that He is kind of willing to, or He’s honor-bound to do so if we repent because of divine law, or anything like that. He WANTS to forgive—so much that He was willing to pay the price for our sins so that we could repent. He doesn’t give forgiveness grudgingly; He gives it willingly, joyfully, eagerly. Indeed, like the father in the parable of the prodigal son, He is standing, watching, and runs to meet us with open arms when we come to Him seek forgiveness. No matter how unworthy we may feel, or how frustrated we may get with ourselves as we sin again (does it drive you nuts that you’re an imperfect human being? It makes me absolutely crazy mad sometimes that I am! It would be so nice to perfect!), that is NOT how Jesus feels. He knows us and loves us and He rejoices in our repentance. He does make us go through the repentance process, which can definitely be painful, but that is a sign of His love for us. As Elder Christofferson said, “Without repentance, there is no real progress or improvement in life…Repentance is a divine gift, and there should be a smile on our faces when we speak of it.” Being able to repent—and then to receive the forgiveness that Christ so willingly gives us—truly is a gift. Let us remember that the Savior truly WANTS to forgive us—every single time, again and again and again.

Forgiveness in Advance

There's an article in the Sept. 2011 Ensign called Anticipating the Need to Forgive by A. Dean Byrd that has pretty much blown my mind over the past couple days as I've been pondering it. The article talks about deciding in advance that you're going to forgive people. A couple snippets:

"We will be on the receiving end of hurtful remarks or actions countless times throughout our lives. Deciding ahead of time to forgive those who intentionally or unintentionally hurt us empowers us to move forward without bitterness or pain." (p. 61)

"The following hypothetical example helps show how important it can be to make decisions in advance. A man is bitten by a rattlesnake. He must quickly make a choice: should he chase down the snake and kill it to avenge the offense, or should he immediately tend to his wound? If he kills the snake, he will get his revenge on the creature that has caused him pain. However, this rash act would neither dull the pain nor delay the onset of the poison. If he chooses instead to address the problem and tend to the wound, he will not have his revenge—but he may save his life in the process. Choosing this course of action ahead of time helps him take lifesaving steps as quickly as possible and avoid prolonged suffering.

We can apply the same pattern when others hurt us with their remarks or actions. We can decide to forgive them in advance. While it is not likely that a rattlesnake will bite us, it is likely that we will be on the receiving end of intentional or unintentional negative remarks or actions from others many times in our lives. Anticipating that and forgiving ahead of time keeps the “poison” out of our system and spares us from unnecessary pain and suffering." (p. 61)

"'It’s like putting on sunblock before going into the sun. The healing balm of forgiveness takes the sting out of the conflict and the hurt, and even soothes the pain.'" (p.65)

This probably isn't the most mind-blowing article ever written, but it's so different from how I normally am. Normally, I anticipate problems and think about the cutting remark I'll make in response or what retribution I'll get (which is usually about as severe as unfriending someone on Facebook--something I haven't actually done.) I'll think about the things I should have said when someone wronged me, and think about how I'm going to speak my piece the next time (although 99% of the time I don't say it the next time either.) So, this forgiveness-in-advance thing is totally a foreign language to me. And yet, I can't deny that this is a language of the Spirit. This is how Christ deals with us--He doesn't sit there waiting for us mess up again so He can give us our just rewards; He's focusing on forgiveness, on how He can show us a better way and how He can draw us closer to Him. His whole life and death and Atonement and pretty much His whole existence is about forgiveness--and forgiveness is what will bring us closer to Him and give us the peace that we need in our lives, something that even the most cutting, intelligent, and even accurate comeback is never going to do for us.