[forgiveness - a foundation for a happy home]

 

[Jesus is merciful]

 

(the image is from the February 2018 Friend magazine)

[Genesis 42 - 50]

 

This week's lesson talks about how Joseph forgave his brothers. We are reminded to forgive others. But truly, the story of Joseph is in a similitude of the Lord and how He is merciful and forgives us. Mercy is a beautiful thing!

Exodus 34:6  The Lord, The Lord God, _________________________________ and 

______________________________,

____________________________________________, and abundant in _____________________________________

and __________________________________.

Deuteronomy 4:31  For the Lord thy God is a _______________________________________ God; he will not

_____________________________________ thee, neither _________________________________ thee, nor

____________________________________ the _________________________________ of thy fathers which he sware 

unto them.

1 Chronicles 16:34  O give _____________________________ unto the Lord; for he is __________________________;

for his _____________________________ endureth __________________  ______________________________.

2 Chronicles 30:9  …for the Lord your God is ____________________________________ and

____________________________________, and will not _____________________________ away his face from you, if

ye return unto him.

Nehemiah 9:17  …but thou art a God ___________________________ to _______________________________,

_____________________________________ and ______________________________________,

___________________________ to anger, and of _______________________________

_______________________________________, and _______________________________________ them not.

Nehemiah 9:19  Yet thou in thy _________________________________  _____________________________

___________________________________________ them not in the wilderness…

Nehemiah 9:25  …and ______________________________ themselves in thy great _____________________________.

Nehemiah 9:27  …and in the time of their _____________________________________, when they cried unto 

thee, thou ________________________________________ them from heaven; and according to thy manifold

_____________________________ thou gavest them _____________________________________, who

________________________________ them out of the hand of their enemies.

Nehemiah 9:28  …and __________________________ times didst thou 

__________________________________ them according to thy ___________________________________.

Psalm 52:8  I trust in the _________________________________ of God for ever and ever.

Psalm 86:5  For thou, Lord, art ___________________________, and ready to ___________________________________;

and _____________________________________ in ________________________________ unto all them that call upon 

thee.

Micah 7:18  Who is a God… that _____________________________________ iniquity…

he ____________________________________ in __________________________________.

[live together in love]

 

I was rereading Elder Holland's talk "The Ministry of Reconciliation" from October 2018 General Conference to prepare for my upcoming Sunday School lesson on Doctrine & Covenants 64-66. Such a powerful talk about forgiving and healing.

Forgiving others doesn't mean that we continue in an abusive relationship, etc. It just means that we acknowledge that every single person on earth is imperfect, will make mistakes, and needs mercy and forgiveness. Let God be the Judge as He is Omniscience. He knows how to judge righteously, perfectly. He knows our hearts. He is the only one who knows how responsible we are for our actions. We just don't know the whole story. What if Hitler had some sort of brain damage that made him the way he is? A simple hard blow to the head can do that. We don't know what makes a person the way they are. We just don't.

Let God judge.

Over and over again in the scriptures, we are told that God is merciful. That gives me hope as I need mercy. I mess up all the time despite my best intentions. 

If we want mercy, we need to be merciful.

When you can love the sinners yet not condone the sin, you feel a weight lifted off your soul. Love will flood into your heart.

It's not easy to forgive sometimes. We can ask for God's help when forgiveness is beyond our ability.

Elder Holland:

"He (Jesus Christ) did not say, "You are not allowed to feel true pain or real sorrow from the shattering experiences you have had at the hand of another." Nor did He say, "In order to forgive fully, you have to reenter a toxic relationship or return to an abusive, destructive circumstance".

But notwithstanding even the most terrible offenses that might come to us, we can rise above our pain only when we put our feet onto the path of true healing. That path is the forgiving one walked by Jesus of Nazareth, who calls out to each of us, “Come, follow me.” 

"The Healer of every wound, He who rights every wrong, asks us to labor with Him in the daunting task of peacemaking in a world that won’t find it any other way."

"...I ask us to be peacemakers—to love peace, to seek peace, to create peace, to cherish peace. I make that appeal in the name of the Prince of Peace, who knows everything about being “wounded in the house of [His] friends” but who still found the strength to forgive and forget—and to heal—and be happy."

For my youth Sunday School, I made 3" peace dove badges for everyone and "quote collage" scripture bookmarks. 

I basically just printed it all on cardstock and I happen to have a 3" circle cutter so that was perfect. 

I printed instructions on how to fold a paper crane as the white dove is one of the symbols of peace. (I know cranes are not doves but close enough. :) In Japan, paper cranes are peace symbols.) When Jesus was baptized, a dove descended on Him, symbolizing the Holy Spirit. The fruits of the Spirit are love, joy, PEACE...

I will give all this plus some origami paper to my class one week prior to our class with a homework assignment that they need to immediately forgive someone who "sins against them" that week. Each time they choose to forgive instead of getting mad, they can make a paper crane to remind them of how they brought peace to the world. 

In class, we'll have a discussion on forgiveness and peace and hopefully, they'll have a personal experience to share with the class.

[a better way]

I have always loved this true story of Dutch Saints sending their potato crops to "enemy" Germans after the World War II. Such healing happened in two nations because of this act of kindness.

If only people did things like this all over the world. What miracles would happen in the world! What could we send to the terrorists instead of bombs to soften their hearts and help them feel LOVE instead of HATE?

[a story of forgiveness]

This story really touched my heart today, as I am struggling to deal with some people I have to work with, who are making my life very stressful and difficult.

Corrie ten Boom, a devout Dutch Christian woman, found such healing despite having been interned in concentration camps during World War II. She suffered greatly, but unlike her beloved sister Betsie, who perished in one of the camps, Corrie survived.

After the war she often spoke publicly of her experiences and of healing and forgiveness. On one occasion a former Nazi guard who had been part of Corrie’s own grievous confinement in Ravensbrück, Germany, approached her, rejoicing at her message of Christ’s forgiveness and love.

“‘How grateful I am for your message, Fraulein,’ he said. ‘To think that, as you say, He has washed my sins away!’

“His hand was thrust out to shake mine,” Corrie recalled. “And I, who had preached so often … the need to forgive, kept my hand at my side.

“Even as the angry, vengeful thoughts boiled through me, I saw the sin of them. … Lord Jesus, I prayed, forgive me and help me to forgive him.

“I tried to smile, [and] I struggled to raise my hand. I could not. I felt nothing, not the slightest spark of warmth or charity. And so again I breathed a silent prayer. Jesus, I cannot forgive him. Give me Your forgiveness.

“As I took his hand the most incredible thing happened. From my shoulder along my arm and through my hand a current seemed to pass from me to him, while into my heart sprang a love for this stranger that almost overwhelmed me.

“And so I discovered that it is not on our forgiveness any more than on our goodness that the world’s healing hinges, but on His. When He tells us to love our enemies, He gives, along with the command, the love itself.”¹

Corrie ten Boom was made whole.

(From a talk given by Timothy J. Dyches.)

[Elder Holland's talk "Remember Lot's Wife"]

I LOVE this talk! I LOVE Elder Holland! 

[free printable]

I didn't know who said this until after I made this printable. Someone told me that the quote is by Saint Teresa of Avila. 

[mercy & love]

[stop it!]

[image via pinterest]

{a happy marriage}

"A happy marriage is not so much a matter of romance as it is an anxious concern for the comfort and well-being of one's companion."

President Gordon B. Hinckley

Ensign, May 1991, 73

"Marriage partners must be quick to forgive. If we will sue for peace, taking the initiative in settling differences - if we forgive and forget with all our hearts... if we forgive all real or fancied offenses before we ask forgiveness for our own sins... what a glorious world this would be! Divorce would be reduced to a minimum; courts would be freed from disgusting routines; family life would be heavenly; the building of the kingdom would go forward at an accelerated pace; and the peace which passeth understanding would bring to us all a joy and happiness which has hardly 'entered into the heart of man'."

President Spencer W. Kimball

{FHE: forgiveness}

I made this for this Primary lesson. Feel free to use it. Click on the picture to see it larger.