forgiveness

Forgiveness is kind of a hard thing for me to fully grasp. I try hard to get over things that people do or say and move on, sometimes it works better than others, but I feel like I usually do a pretty good job at that.

These past few weeks have been really interesting.. to say the least. The concept of forgiveness was a huge part of that. I received a letter from someone from my past apologizing for some things, and at the end of it, he asked me for my forgiveness. I was shocked. So shocked. I had never in my life expected to receive anything like what I was reading. I found my self seriously reflecting on his request for my eventual forgiveness. I have tried my entire life to get over these hurt feelings and give it to him, but for some reason, it is so hard. I think I have no problem getting over silly little issues because that's way easier than the getting over the bigger ones. When push comes to shove, it is important for me to remember that our Savior has forgiven me of my sins. So, if I am being forgiven of all the things that I do wrong {which happens to be quite a bit} then who am I to not forgive someone else. I'm taking a New Testament class right now, and it's like the parable in Matthew, the one about the king forgiving this HUGE debt that some merchant owed him, and then that same man turned around and would not forgive his servants debt, which was a sliver in comparison to the debt that was forgiven of him. I think I can learn something from this...forgiving is not easy, but I think that once we can fully accept God's forgiveness, it makes it so much easier to forgive others. Forgiving isn't easy, that's obvious, but man does it feel so good when you can just take a deep breath and let what ever it is go. Christ took my sins upon himself so that I can eventually return home. It is clear that this is something that I could never repay, but I can certainly start by having forgiveness.