The Merciful Obtain Mercy

This post is part of the General Conference Odyssey. This week covers the Sunday morning session of the April 2012 General Conference.

President Dieter F. Uchtdorf's (then Second Counselor in the First Presidency) address, The Merciful Obtain Mercy, touched me deeply. It brought to mind President James E. Faust's April 2007 talk, The Healing Power of Forgiveness, on the same subject. Less than a year after President Faust's talk I had the opportunity to put into practice that very principle of forgiveness.

I won't give the specific details, but a close family member made choices that betrayed my trust and hurt me deeply. I pled with the Lord to take away my anger and hurt, and was miraculously and immediately relieved of my burden and able to forgive the person. He later told me that my act of forgiveness helped him understand better the Savior's atonement. Almost two decades later I've come to the realization that I had been a witness of Jesus Christ "in all times and in all things, and in all places." (Mosiah 18:9) 

President Uchtdorf said, "Forgiveness for our sins comes with conditions. We must repent, and we must forgive others."

I learned from reading Amish Grace by Kraybill, Nolt and Weaver-Zercher, that the Amish, about whom President Faust spoke, don't have some special ability to forgive, but that that particular teaching of Jesus is cultivated daily and supported by the ethos of the group. 

Forgiving ourselves and others is not easy. In fact, for most of us it requires a major change in our attitude and way of thinking--even a change of heart. But there is good news. This "mighty change" of heart is exactly what the gospel of Jesus Christ is designed to bring into our lives.

How is it done, President Uchtdorf asks? Through the love of God. When our hearts are filled with the love of God, something good and pure happens to us. 

I've learned that forgiving others is not for their benefit, but for mine. By giving grace and mercy through forgiveness, I remove from my heart the poison that will fester and canker my heart and soul. I can move forward with my life unburdened by anger and hatred. I can feel the peace of the redemption of my Savior's Atoning love, mercy and grace towards and for me.

Forgiveness and mercy seem to me to be a gift we give ourselves so we can receive the greater gift of forgiveness and mercy from the Savior for our own sins. It blesses our own life more than those we forgive, some of whom may never even know of our forgiveness, such as the person who cuts in front of us in traffic; or others who make life tense and uncomfortable.

President Uchtdorf sums it up saying, "Remember, in the end, it is the merciful who obtain mercy." I can testify that has been true in my life, and I have hope for the life to come.

Ministering and Forgiveness

This post is part of the General Conference Odyssey. This week covers the Sunday morning session of the October 2005 conference.

So many good talks this session, but I'm choosing just two quotes from President Hinckley's address. 

I do not enjoy travel [he had given figures of how many miles he'd recently traveled, about 35,000] but it is my wish to get out among our people to extend appreciation and encouragement, and to bear testimony of the divinity of the Lord's work.

This struck me as how I should feel about ministering. I should want to get out and visit personally with my sisters to encourage them, and strengthen their faith in the Savior. I've been working at doing better this year.

Somehow forgiveness, with love and tolerance accomplishes miracles that can happen in no other way.

The older I get the more I understand how important it is to forgive others. Not for their sake, but for mine. To harbor grudges and hurts without forgiving is like rust or rot to our soul. Part of the miracle that happens is a lighter feeling from letting go of burdens.

 

 

 

"Peaceable Things"

This post is part of the General Conference Odyssey. This week covers the Sunday afternoon session of the October 1996 conference.

This past Sunday I spoke in Sacrament Meeting about prophets and the importance of listening to and following their instructions. In this session of conference Elder Jeffrey R. Holland said:

A general conference of this church is a remarkable occasion indeed--it is an institutional declaration that the heavens are open, that divine guidance is as real today as it was for the ancient house of Israel, that God our Heavenly Father loves us and speaks His will through a living prophet.

He talked about how "peace and good tidings . . . are among the ultimate blessings that the gospel of Jesus Christ brings a troubled world."

Has there ever been a time when the world wasn't troubled? Perhaps brief moments in small isolated places, such as Enoch's city, and the Nephite/Lamanite nation after the visitation of the Savior. But otherwise, mortal life has been troubled.

In relating the blessings of the gospel Elder Holland talked about repentance and said:

Closely related to our own obligation to repent is the generosity of letting others do the same--we are to forgive even as we are forgiven. . . We don't want God to remember our sins, so there is something fundamentally wrong in our relentlessly trying to remember those of others.

He finished with this beautiful thought:

The better angels of our nature. That is what much of what the Church and general conference and the gospel of Jesus Christ are about. The appeal today and tomorrow and forever to be better, to be cleaner, to be kinder, to be holier; to seek peace and always be believing. 

We need the messages of general conference everyday! They help us face the realities of mortal life with greater courage and strength. I know I couldn't make it without the guidance, light and truth of the words of prophets, apostles and other inspired leaders.

Marilyn at Light in Leaves has more General Conference Odyssey.