The Healing Power of Forgiveness

The last couple of days have been rather interesting. School has been a burden, things continue to seem like they won't stay but always fall through, but at the same time, it has given me time to think. I had a couple of things this week that I really had to think about. I had a symposium that I went to sponsored by BYU with a lot of great speakers called TEDxBYU. There are a couple of main themes like social entrepreneurship, being bold, not having fear of failure, and when working to solve problems you need to understand the wants and needs of your audience. They talked about how if you are crazy enough to think you can change the world, you might be able to do it if you make the sacrifice. Make solutions not excuses because being good enough is not enough. The reason why I loved going to TEDx was the fact that it introduces an optimistic perspective on a variety of issues.

The other things that have really hit me this week have been my Sunday School class and visiting with my family. Our lesson this week was on the healing power of forgiveness. The class went well but the idea hit me the most was on what that really means: "The Healing Power of Forgiveness." It is hard to ask for forgiveness and to know what to say, but the hardest part is being willing to forgive. Sometimes the hurt is so deep, the wounds so wide, that the scars can be seen on the surface. The healing process needs to be one where forgiveness needs to match that which needs to healed. Whether it is always being told you are never good enough, a broken heart, or the roots of sin, the pain has to be rooted out. It is like a cancer, an infection of the soul. The reasons that we are asked to forgive one another is to not only free ourselves from guilt but from pain. The opportunity to validate is as important as the sincerity when we take the time to honestly and openly express our feelings.

The ability to be open and honest with feelings is something that seems can only be done when a deep and abiding friendship has matured. There are too many people in life that continue to build up a boundary around themselves when it comes to love. The most wonderful feeling happened today when I was feeling down and out. It was a moment of weakness where for no apparent reason, I felt insignificant and like I was unable to do things in a way that I knew I could, because capability always outweighs performance. But in the most wonderful way, my brother and his little girl came by to visit and in the way that it seems only a child can do, my niece just filled that hole in my heart. As she turned around to see me, with complete excitement she ran to me, took me in her arms, and cried out how she missed me and that I was hers. It was like she had found her best friend or recovered a favorite yet forgotten toy. But it was her embrace and the love in her voice that just made me melt. As she pressed her small body against me as I carried her, I realized that everything was going to be okay and I was doing the best that I can. All those things that seemed so fatal came back into their proper perspective. Life is good. Things are all going to work out.

Though we are rocked to and fro by the moments and events that come through every hour of every day, when we take the time to really meditate and listen and ponder and think we can see that no matter what we face we can pull through. Life is an organic process where we live our passions, grow in our understanding of our own significance, insignificance, our meaning, we can find within ourselves our own deep and hidden talents. And by taking opportunities to express and discover, new meaning is brought to what is our own existence. The best remedies to those long and stressful days are always to slow down, breath a little, love a little, and to stop and remember the good times that we are all thankful for. Today, I realized that I always will be thankful for the unselfish and understanding love of a child.

"For it was not into my ear you whispered, but into my heart. It was not my lips you kissed, but my soul." - Anonymous