Love, the Essence of the Gospel II

The lesson today was taught by Deanna Jeffrey and it was based on the talk by President Tomas S. Monson "Love, the Essence of the Gospel." We just had this lesson a few weeks ago, but it is always good to have a refresher! Deanna got a good discussion going ways that we can forgive others. We talked about how emotional wounds leave scarring just like physical wounds do.

When a bone heals itself, the bone grows back to form a scar that is stronger than the rest of the bone. Likewise when an emotional scar heals, the person has a stronger character as a result of going through whatever emotional trial it was that left the scar.

We should always forgive those who wrong us, and need to remember to strike a balance between aknowledging that we have forgiven them and allowing ourselves to get in to the same emotionally scarring situation again.

When it comes to forgiving people, I always remind myself that everyone on Earth is a child of God, and that people are not perfect. Sometimes hurtful words were not meant to be hurtful, sometimes "wrong" actions taken were meant in a spirit of loving kindness and we simply perceived them the wrong way.

It is very rare that a person will purposely go out of their way to make your life harder. Most of the time it seems like we get mad at someone simply because we misunderstood what they were really trying to do or say. When someone does do something mean to you on purpose, remember they are walking the hard walk of life too, and we all deserve a break every now and then, and a fresh start.

Plus, when you forgive someone, you are no longer harboring those harsh festering angry feelings inside of you. You might still feel sad, but you will no longer feel angry and vengeful, and there will
always be some kind of peace that comes from forgiving someone else.

"But I say unto you, Love your enemies, bless them that curse you, do good to them that hate you, and pray for them which despitefully use you, and persecute you;" Matthew 5:44

We also talked about how sometimes we are unusually nice to strangers and we have a tendency to show our ugly sides to those who we love the most. I'm sure I can speak for all of us when I say I can definitely work on being a better person around my husband, and vice versa.

Anyways, hope you girls all have a good week! Make sure you re-read that conference talk by President Monson if you haven't read it in a while.

xoxox
Lisa