Forgiveness

Choosing to cultivate an attitude of forgiveness through faith in Jesus Christ is one of the most important ways to become like our Master.  It brings peace, hope and power to serve.  

Following is the true story of some faithful Amish Christians who exemplified this gift in a beautiful way, as related by Pres. James E. Faust in his General Conference talk of April, 2007:

In the beautiful hills of Pennsylvania, a devout group of Christian people live a simple life without automobiles, electricity, or modern machinery. They work hard and live quiet, peaceful lives separate from the world. Most of their food comes from their own farms. The women sew and knit and weave their clothing, which is modest and plain. They are known as the Amish people.

A 32-year-old milk truck driver lived with his family in their Nickel Mines community. He was not Amish, but his pickup route took him to many Amish dairy farms, where he became known as the quiet milkman. Last October he suddenly lost all reason and control. In his tormented mind he blamed God for the death of his first child and some unsubstantiated memories. He stormed into the Amish school without any provocation, released the boys and adults, and tied up the 10 girls. He shot the girls, killing five and wounding five. Then he took his own life.

This shocking violence caused great anguish among the Amish but no anger. There was hurt but no hate. Their forgiveness was immediate. Collectively they began to reach out to the milkman’s suffering family. As the milkman’s family gathered in his home the day after the shootings, an Amish neighbor came over, wrapped his arms around the father of the dead gunman, and said, “We will forgive you.” ¹ Amish leaders visited the milkman’s wife and children to extend their sympathy, their forgiveness, their help, and their love. About half of the mourners at the milkman’s funeral were Amish. In turn, the Amish invited the milkman’s family to attend the funeral services of the girls who had been killed. A remarkable peace settled on the Amish as their faith sustained them during this crisis.

One local resident very eloquently summed up the aftermath of this tragedy when he said, “We were all speaking the same language, and not just English, but a language of caring, a language of community, [and] a language of service. And, yes, a language of forgiveness.” ² It was an amazing outpouring of their complete faith in the Lord’s teachings in the Sermon on the Mount: “Do good to them that hate you, and pray for them which despitefully use you.” ³

The family of the milkman who killed the five girls released the following statement to the public:

“To our Amish friends, neighbors, and local community:

“Our family wants each of you to know that we are overwhelmed by the forgiveness, grace, and mercy that you've extended to us. Your love for our family has helped to provide the healing we so desperately need. The prayers, flowers, cards, and gifts you've given have touched our hearts in a way no words can describe. Your compassion has reached beyond our family, beyond our community, and is changing our world, and for this we sincerely thank you.

“Please know that our hearts have been broken by all that has happened. We are filled with sorrow for all of our Amish neighbors whom we have loved and continue to love. We know that there are many hard days ahead for all the families who lost loved ones, and so we will continue to put our hope and trust in the God of all comfort, as we all seek to rebuild our lives.” ⁴

How could the whole Amish group manifest such an expression of forgiveness? It was because of their faith in God and trust in His word, which is part of their inner beings. They see themselves as disciples of Christ and want to follow His example.

Hearing of this tragedy, many people sent money to the Amish to pay for the health care of the five surviving girls and for the burial expenses of the five who were killed. As a further demonstration of their discipleship, the Amish decided to share some of the money with the widow of the milkman and her three children because they too were victims of this terrible tragedy.

Forgiveness is not always instantaneous as it was with the Amish. When innocent children have been molested or killed, most of us do not think first about forgiveness. Our natural response is anger. We may even feel justified in wanting to “get even” with anyone who inflicts injury on us or our family.

Dr. Sidney Simon, a recognized authority on values realization, has provided an excellent definition of forgiveness as it applies to human relationships:

“Forgiveness is freeing up and putting to better use the energy once consumed by holding grudges, harboring resentments, and nursing unhealed wounds. It is rediscovering the strengths we always had and relocating our limitless capacity to understand and accept other people and ourselves.” ⁵

Most of us need time to work through pain and loss. We can find all manner of reasons for postponing forgiveness. One of these reasons is waiting for the wrongdoers to repent before we forgive them. Yet such a delay causes us to forfeit the peace and happiness that could be ours. The folly of rehashing long-past hurts does not bring happiness.

Some hold grudges for a lifetime, unaware that courageously forgiving those who have wronged us is wholesome and therapeutic.

Forgiveness comes more readily when, like the Amish, we have faith in God and trust in His word. Such faith “enables people to withstand the worst of humanity. It also enables people to look beyond themselves. More importantly, it enables them to forgive.” ⁶

This is the way I want to live.....

Humility

I used to feel cautious about humility as a virtue, thinking it was one you really didn't want to focus on to much.  I remember a Sacrament Meeting talk when I was young where someone joked about how we must be careful about what we pray for - especially when it comes to humility!  That would certainly be asking for trouble.  I made a note never to pray for humility.  

Thankfully though, humility has grown much in favor with me over the years.  I have noticed that meekness and lowliness of heart are among the sweetest and most joyful of experiences, and I think the reason is because they effectively get us to move our own awkward selves out of the way, thereby opening up to our view the the magnificence of the glory of the Father and his Holy Son!  With pride, there is no way their lovliness and beauty can enter in.   Meekness and lowliness of heart are gifts that we give to ourselves so we don't miss this splendor of love and power and grace that our selfish selves quite effectively obscure.

How grateful I am that those who embody mercy and power and light are always there, fully available to minister to us!  How grateful I am for their kindness and their patience and their love.

Meekness and lowliness of heart are best obtained through sincere study and prayer, and a burning desire to do the Father's will.  They are gifts of the Spirit, rewards for purity and having our hearts right soft and right.  Seeking unto meekness and to do the Lord's will bring humility and peace...  and eventually the sincerest desired of our hearts - His holy presence to behold!

I am so grateful for these gifts....

A New Heart

"I will give them one heart, and I will put a new spirit within you; and I will take the stony heart out of their flesh, and will give them an heart of flesh...and they shall be my people, and I will be their God." Ezekiel 11:19, 20

The new heart we receive is not just our old heart, new and improved.  It is to receive his heart into our own, with all the pure love and joy this gift brings! This new heart comes to us through the power of his Spirit, through which we also have access to his mind and to his will.  Amazing!  How beautiful, that through the mercy of the atonement of Jesus Christ, we can literally become one with him by receiving his heart into our own  It's no wonder we feel to pray unto the Father with all the energy of heart, that we may be filled with this pure love of Christ, which fails not and endures forever. What an unspeakable gift!  I am so grateful...

On Becoming One with God

In my readings this morning of Catherine Thomas's book, Light in the Wilderness, I rediscovered a favorite passage defining in a beautiful way what it means to become one with God, as we all are striving to do.  She first talks about the Savior and his relationship with the Father to illustrate what she means:

"Here we confront the mystery of identity.  Jesus is reffered to in scritpure as both Father and Son.  What is the nature of Jesus's identity if he is both Son and Father?  The annalogy of the water vessel helps.  As the vessel with water, the Lord's body contains His spirit.  The "vessel" itself has its own physical DNA, and the spirit its own eternally personal components.  That is, there are fundamental principles or parts in His soul that will endure in Him in their unique form forever, as there are in each of us.  But it appears that as He allows His own spirit to be mixed with an additional spirit, His spirit takes on the attributes, the consciousness, and the identity of that spirit being added to His.  In the scriptures, then, "Son" identifies the physical part of Him, the vessel part, with its unique components, personal history, and ministry; and "Father" identifies the predominant spirit that fills Him, making Him both the Father and the Son."

     I am in the Father, and the Father in me, and the Father and I are one-- [I am] the Father because he gave me of his fullness. (D&C 93:3)

"In the tabernacle of his body the Son voluntarily gave the predominance to His Fahter's spirit... This is not only the pattern for the Gods, but also for each person, as modeled by our Savior.  So we might say, as the Natural must yield to the Spiritual, so the Son yields his will to the Father's, so also must the Seeker put off his natural man and yield to the Son, ultimately giving the Lord the predominance in his soul (Mosiah 3:19).  As we see, this relationship of oneness between the Father and Son is not an anomaly, but a model for Man.  Here we behold a great chain of linked beings, reaching into eternity. 

Therefore, following this model, as a person fully yields his will to God's, he retains not only his own identity, but also takes on the identity of that Eternal Being that fills him.  This person comes alive in Christ (see 2 N 25:25), is empowered by Him to speak and to act in the living stream of godliness, of revelation, and heavenly empowerment, this loving current of highter Life.  Elder F. Enzio Busche describes this relationship with the Savior:

     With this fulfillment of love [of our Heavenly Father] in our hearts, we will never be happy anymore just by being ourselves or living our own lives.  We will not be satisfied until we have surrendered our lives into the arms of the loving Christ, and until He has become the doer of all our deeds and He has become the speaker of all our words"  (Truth Is the Issue, Ensign, Novemember 1993, 25).
                           

The Light of His Countenance

I often return to the beautiful account of the Savior blessing the Nephite children in 3 Nephi Chapter 17. This chapter touches on the soul’s deepest-seated needs in an unforgettable way. There are things our spirits must have known before birth, such as our Father’s presence, the visitation of angels and surely other things that are unspeakable. Here, we see that Jesus Christ is able to fully meet those yearnings, which often go unrecognized, but which are present, I believe in all of us. His presence and love have become a complete and unspeakable surrogate for that of the Father, until we can actually re-enter that presence forever. In Jesus’ presence, our bodies and souls are healed from the deformities and traumas of mortality. Those who we most love are also healed of their infirmities. Our children and our children’s children are blessed with the promises of Abraham, and other things which cannot even be written. Our minds and hearts are opened up to behold that which “eye hath not seen, nor ear heard, nor hath entered into the heart of man.”

Having received the fullness of the Father, he imparts unto us that which is utterly incomprehensible to the mortal mind and we are transformed into celestial beings fit for the eternities, partaking as heirs with Him of the Father’s fullness. Many of these gifts and truths are evidently not withheld from men in mortality, as is demonstrated by this remarkable account.  These ordinary people were blessed, I’m sure, as much as any have ever been blessed. I cannot deny the feeling that all those who wait upon the Lord will find Him in like manner—be it in this life or in the next. We read in D&C 88 the parable of a master who abides with his twelve servants, each in their turn. I must believe that all those who live and hope for such a communion with Jesus Christ will find Him, each in turn, and will receive as these Nephites did, more than their hearts could have dared to seek.

In the Gospel of John, we read about the Lord abiding with all those who love Him and keep His commandments, both through His own presence and through another comforter, which is the Holy Ghost. It is sweet to remember that the Nephites, after having tasted of this intimate and glorious time with the Lord desired the gift of the Holy Ghost above all things. Thus, our souls may be equally as filled as theirs were, and our yearnings equally as met as we partake continuously of the very same gift. As promised to us so very many times in the scriptures, we may hope for our turn in His presence and prepare diligently for the very same communion with Him--but as we wait upon Him, the light of His countenance may shine upon us as it did upon them, and we may be pure as His disciples, because the gift of the Holy Ghost is ours to receive in fullness (See chapter 19). 

-Ben

On Being Born of God

"Marvel not", declares Alma, "That all mankind, yea, men and women, all nations, kindreds, tongues and people, must be born again; yea, born of God, changed from their carnal and fallen state, to a state of righteousness.... And thus they be come new creatures" (Mosiah 27:25-26).

I love the process and final reward that President Kimball describes for this mighty change that we must all achieve:

"I have learned that where there is a prayerful heart, a hungering after righteousness, a forsaking of sins, and obedience to the commandments of God, the Lord pours out more and more light until there is finally power to pierce the heavenly veil and to know more than man knows.  A person of such righteousness has the priceless promise that one day he shall see the Lord's face and know that he is."  (D&C 93:1)



In my most recent reading of Lehi's dream a few things caught my attention.  (1 Nephi 8, Book of Mormon)

First of all, Lehi, finding himself in a dark and dreary waste, prayed in faith to a God he already knew, who was full of mercy and love.  After praying a vision opened up to him in which he saw a field and a tree whose fruit was desirable to make one happy.  In the dream he went forth and partook of the nearby fruit, which was most sweet and filled his soul with exceedingly great joy.

Lehi's position and perspective were from near the tree, looking out into the field, or the world, not looking at the tree from a distance with an arduous journey ahead.  His family members were also in a position near the tree where they could see it and partake of the fruit when they were ready.  

Lehi spent his time and energy persuading those most dear to him to partake of the fruit of the tree.  

As a side note, I also noticed that not all who wanted to enter the great and spacious building made it.  It seemed to be a somewhat elusive goal, such as fame and fortune provide today.  

My conclusions today:

Some of us are placed in life close to the tree with family, friends and leaders who have already partaken of the fruit and have tasted of its joy.  

Like Lehi, it is expected that we will live our lives in gratitude and faith and purity as we strive to assist others in all the energy of heart to partake of the fruit of the tree and enjoy the blessings of eternal life.

I see the blessings and responsibilities of the tribes of Joseph in this vision of the tree of life, and it is my hope that I can fulfill my mission and fall down and worship the Master of the tree.