Tuesday, February 24, 2009
in need of some good verses...
i know this is a deviation from the posting of verses...but i really need help with verses pertaining to forgiveness. i've been really struggling the past few years with forgiving my father and i know that this is holding me back from a better relationship with him, as well as, my Heavenly Father...
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Dieter F. Uchtdorf said this on forgiveness:
ReplyDelete"Jesus taught us eternal truth when He taught us to pray: “Forgive us our debts, as we forgive our debtors. … For, if ye forgive men their trespasses your heavenly Father will also forgive you; but if ye forgive not … neither will your Father forgive your trespasses” (3 Nephi 13:11, 14–15).
Therefore, extending forgiveness is a precondition to receiving forgiveness.
For our own good, we need the moral courage to forgive and to ask for forgiveness. Never is the soul nobler and more courageous than when we forgive. This includes forgiving ourselves.
Each of us is under a divinely spoken obligation to reach out with pardon and mercy and to forgive one another. There is a great need for this Christlike attribute in our families, in our marriages...in our communities, and in our nations.
We will receive the joy of forgiveness in our own lives when we are willing to extend that joy freely to others. Lip service is not enough. We need to purge our hearts and minds of feelings and thoughts of bitterness and let the light and the love of Christ enter in. As a result, the Spirit of the Lord will fill our souls with the joy accompanying divine peace of conscience (see Mosiah 4:2–3).
A while back I had a situation occur where a friend really hurt me. I would think about the offense several times a day and each time it would succeed in making me more angry with the person and feeling more victimized. As a Christian I knew that I had to forgive but I felt so hurt that I didn't actually know how to do it.
ReplyDeleteSeveral days later I woke up in the middle of the night and couldn't go back to sleep. I decided to watch TV. When I turned on the television the first channel was set to a Christian show on forgiveness. The advice I received was to pray to God saying, "God, please help me to forgive this person. Right now I don't want to but I know that is the wrong choice. Please change my heart so that I can forgive them freely." I would say this everyday first thing in the morning. Everytime I would think of the offense in a given day I would say, "God, I'm still angry about this but I know that you are working on it. Thank you for helping to change my heart. Thank you for helping me to forgive."
After doing this everyday for about 2 weeks I finally felt peace in my heart. Now, I am able to speak freely about it without anger as I have truly forgiven them.
Maybe you could try this with your dad.