Scripture of the week:

JST, Mark 3:22

• Joseph Smith Translation

But he answered them and said, Verily I say unto you, All sins which men have committed, when they repent, shall be forgiven them; for I came to preach repentance unto the sons of men. 


Mark 3:28-30King James Version (KJV)

28 Verily I say unto you, All sins shall be forgiven unto the sons of men, and blasphemies wherewith soever they shall blaspheme:
29 But he that shall blaspheme against the Holy Ghost hath never forgiveness, but is in danger of eternal damnation:

The point of these verses in repentance and forgiveness.  I have been thinking about these two things recently.  Tonight I am repenting of making a promise of a scripture a day and I have been remiss for several days.  So I am repenting of breaking my promise.  Please forgive me.

For the last week I have been thinking of how this applies to my personal life.  And as I sat down I thought "there is a lesson here and I think I might be missing it." 

In my youth I was sexually abused.  Years later the person who did it came to me and asked my forgiveness.  I was pregnant with my first child.  He shared why he did it.  It took a little time but I did forgive.  Years later after that I had a very vivid dream that he came to me and again asked my forgiveness.  I thought how unusual.  In my dream he came to me at a place I was working.  He was more than a thousand miles from his home so I was surprised to see him.  I asked him why he was there and he said he wanted my forgiveness.  I replied that I had done it years ago.  Part of the dream for me was the realization that I had forgiven him. 

He had repented of his actions and I had forgiven him.  Two of the things God asks of each of us.  But I think about  it a bit more.  I have forgiven him but that does not mean I have to trust him to my most precious possessions.  Does that mean I have not forgiven him?  I don't think so.  If my children were little I would not trust him to babysit my children. 

Several years ago I was asked to give a lesson in Relief Society on this topic.  I was told by the Lord the week prior that I needed to be prepared to share my experiences with the sisters.  I was terrified.  To top it off the bishop attended the lesson.  Bishops don't normally attend Relief Society classes.  The reason I didn't want to share was I was afraid that once these women had this knowledge of me their view of me would change. 

Last year I shared this story of my experiences with my daughter, Carolin.  She did comment that it did change the way she saw me. 

For Carolin it was probably something more along the lines of seeing her mom more as a person than just her mom.  But for the sisters in the ward they were kind and caring and didn't seem to act differently towards me for which I am very grateful. 

Coming to terms with the abuse, the abuser and how it affects others that are close to me has always been in my thoughts.  For me to not forgive means I am free of the cancer that unforgiving causes.  I always say that unforgiving is a cancer on the soul and needs to be irradiated quickly.  As shown in my dream the fact that I forgave was of no consequence to the person that I forgave.  He didn't know and in his case he cared.  But for many in our lives whether we forgive or not affects us more than the person we are forgiving.  The person we are forgiving rarely has knowledge and it does not affect them.  So do yourself a favor and practice forgiveness.