Just a Motivating Monday - Forgiveness is a Virtue

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Carissa over at Good N' Crazy had a great topic on her blog for Church Talk. It's something that has totally stuck in my mind since reading it and I think I'm going to spin off of her post for Just a Motivating Monday.

Virtue is a beautiful word. It's a word that I'm trying to master into my life. I want to be virtuous. I want people to look at me and smile with the thought in their mind... she has so much virtue about her.

For the next few weeks I'm going to pick a virtuous trait and talk about it for Just a Motivating Monday.

This week: Forgiveness

Everybody has been hurt by someone they love.  Or maybe you hurt someone you love.  The point is... we have to be able to forgive in our heart.

President Hinckley of the LDS Church once said in an article:

"Somehow forgiveness, with love and tolerance, accomplishes miracles that can happen in no other way."

I know it is so hard at times to forgive people, but are you perfect?  Have you gone through your whole life not doing a thing wrong to someone?  Have you been forgiven?  Forgiving somebody, especially yourself can be one of the hardest things in this world to do.  But if you are virtuous and want to be forgiven, you yourself  MUST do this.

Tips to Forgive

• Pray to Heavenly Father and ask Him for His help.  He can soften your heart and help you to forgive.

• Get rid of the bitterness.  If you're still plotting out ways to get even the forgiving process is no where near.

• Once you have forgiven, let it go.  Don't hold on to it, because that's holding a grudge... which does not mean you have forgiven.

• Don't focus so much on the negative things that have happened to you.  If you are focusing on the positive things in your life, and the positive things people have done for you, you will be able to forgive the negative things easier.  There's no point in holding on to negativity when there's so much positivity to welcome into your heart.

• You need to remember that when you are forgiving, it's for you.  It's not for the person that did you wrong, but it is for you and your exaltation.  It's a process you must go through, and you will be forgiving others for you.

A very good friend of mine... you can find her on twitter @jenhoehne contributed to this post by saying:

"I think that forgiveness is one of those words like "love" that people use loosley. To truly forgive someone means you have let go of any ill will and no longer harbor feelings of anger or angst toward another person.

Forgiving ourselves goes hand in hand with forgiving others. We are often times harder on ourselves than the person or people we have wronged. Forgiving others means letting go of hurt they have caused you and forgiving yourself is learning to love yourself after you have caused another person pain. Both are crutial in the eternal realm of this life and critical to our salvation and prosperity hereafter."

Final Thought:

I know it's hard... forgiveness is one of the hardest things that we do, but it's something that in time needs to be done.  I haven't completely forgiven everybody in my life that needs forgiveness, but it's definitely something I have been working on.  Some of the people I have forgiven I have chosen not to have in my life.  Reasons being that they just aren't a good influence on who I'm trying to be, but I have forgiven them in my heart and with God.  It's something we should all have... it's a virtue and if you want to be virtuous it's a step you should take.


I hope that this post inspires you to start the forgiving process if you haven't already.  I hope that it inspires you to always have a forgiveness attitude in your heart ~ it will only make you a better person.