Forgiveness

We all struggle with this at some point in our lives. Many of us never stop struggling with this one thing that has been asked of us to do. Whether it's forgiving ourselves, or those who have wronged us, or what I personally find the most challenging, forgiving those who have wronged the ones we love, Heavenly Father has made it clear that this is necessary for us to be able to be forgiven by Him.


I was once told that the word Forgive comes from the German word "Vorgeben". "Vor" meaning 'before' and "Geben" meaning 'given'. So in this sense "Vorgeben" means to have given before the Offense has ever even taken place. Imagine if we all lived by this definition of Forgiveness. We could cease to feel anger and resentment again. 


I think about Kindness and how this type of Forgiveness is like Kindness. Because being kind means not holding any kind of prejudgment towards others, being slow to anger, quick to help those in need, and smiling gratefully at those who help us with our daily tasks even if the help wasn't performed perfectly.


When others have wronged me, I often try to understand why they did what they did, so to more easily come to terms with it and move on to forgiveness. But there is an error in this kind of thinking, because a lot of times I can't come up with a 'Why'. My attempt at Sympathizing becomes the direct link to resentment as I start to think, "they must have done it to hurt me," Or "They're just too stupid for their own good and the world would be better off without them." Certainly,  not Christlike thoughts.


It's not my job to understand 'Why'. My job is to Forgive and Forget, and move on to making the world a better place by doing my best in all things.