From Elder Jeffrey R. Holland of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles, and the book “Peace, Essays Hope and Encouragement” (multiple authors), related to our own obligation to repent is the generosity of letting others do the same Elder Holland wrote: —we are to forgive even as we are forgiven. In this we participate in the very essence of the atonement of Jesus Christ. Surely the most majestic moment of that fateful Friday, when nature convulsed and the veil of the temple was rent, was the unspeakably merciful moment when Chris said, “Father, forgive them; for they know not what they do.” (Luke 23:34.) As our advocate with the Father, He is still making that same plea today—in you behalf and mine.
Here, as in all things, Jesus set the standard for us to follow. Life is too short to be spent nursing animosities or in keeping a box score of offences of against us—you know—no runs, no hits, no errors. We don’t want God to remember our sins, there is something fundamentally wrong in our relentlessly trying to remember those of others.
When we have been hurt, undoubtedly God takes into account what wrongs were done to us and what provocations there are for our resentments, but clearly the more provocation there is, and the more excuse we can find for our hurt, all the more reason for us to forgive and be delivered from the destructive hell of such poisonous venom and anger. (Adapted from George Macdonald.) It is one of those ironies of godhood that in order to find peace, the offended as well as the offender must engage the principle of forgiveness.
Yes, peace is a very precious commodity, a truly heartfelt need and there are many things we can do to achieve it. But—for whatever reason—life has it moments when uninterrupted peace may seem to elude us for a season. We wonder why there are such times in life, particularly when we may be trying harder than we have ever tried to live worthy of God’s blessings and His help. When problems or sorrows or sadness come and they don’t seem to be our fault, what are we to make of their unwelcome appearance?
With time and perspective we recognize that such problems in life do come for a purpose if only to allow one who faces such despair to be convinced that he really does need divine strength beyond, that she does need the offer of heaven’s hand. Those who feel no need for mercy usually never seek it and almost never bestow it. Those who have never had a heartache or a weakness or felt lonely or forsaken never have had to cry unto heaven for relief or such personal pain. Surly it is better to find the goodness of God and the grace of Christ, even at the price of despair, than to risk living our lives in a moral or material complacency that has never felt any need for redemption or relief.
A life without problems or limitations or challenges—life without “opposition in all things” (2 Nephi 2:11) as Nephi phrased it—would paradoxically but in very fact be less rewarding and ennobling than one which confronts even frequently confronts difficulty and disappointment and sorrow. A beloved Eve said, were it not for the difficulties faced in a fallen world, neither she nor Adam nor any of the rest of us ever would have known the “the joy of our redemption, and the eternal life which God giveth unto all the obedient.” (Moses 5:11.) ~ Jeffrey R. Holland, Deseret Book Company, “Peace, Essays of Hope and Encouragement” p.24-26
