Doctrine and Covenants 64:9 -- On Forgiveness

"Wherefore, I say unto you that ye ought to forgive one another; for he that forgiveth not his brother his trespasses standeth condemned before the Lord; for there remaineth in him the greater sin."
Doctrine and Covenants 64:9


This is quite thought-provoking to me right now... I mean, I have thought about this in terms of actual intentionally hurting someone before... but right now it seems to apply even further than that.  Whether or not someone even knows, or cares, that they hurt you... or whether you even know or care that you hurt someone else... we need to forgive and love each other.

Isn't it an amazing thing that God reserves judgement for himself?  How much harder would our lives be if we were required to judge and forgive or condemn the people around us?  Much harder... and the funny thing is, sometimes we make it that hard on ourselves by actually trying to judge, to read the cover of the book and determine its contents.  But we can't... no matter how good we are at delving into people, at discovering their personalities... we can't know them as well as God can.  I mean, seriously, we can't even know *ourselves* as well as God can, especially with the veil of forgetfulness drawn.  Which is why we need to forgive ourselves, as well as others... and for ourselves, make sure we try and become better than we have been... attempt to heal rather than hurt.

When we hold things in our hearts against other people, it hurts *us* ... it makes it harder for us to be part of a community, harder to accept other people... harder to be open-minded and caring.  So, today... let's give *ourselves* a break and let go of the anger that we are harboring against whoever it is.  When we let the anger out of our hearts, we have less darkness within us.  When we can forgive, we make ourselves clean and we improve our capacity to love.