It's There. Just Reach and Take Hold.

     You know those people in life who can't forgive anyone? I've recently had people close to me tell me of people they don't think they could ever forgive. Then, of course, the next day in class, we talked about Christ's atonement and the power of repentance and forgiveness. And then 3 days later, I taught my visiting teachees the monthly lesson, which was also on Christ's atonement and his love for us. The Lord's timing is impeccable.

Because of our Savior's infinite love for us, we are given the opportunity to start again. With ourselves and with others. Romans 8:35, 38-39 lists many things that cannot and will not ever come between us and Christ's love for us. No creature, height or depth can separate us "from the love of God, which is in Christ Jesus our Lord".

     The suffering of Christ in the garden, allows us to takes steps to come unto Christ. We are told in Moroni 10:32 to "come unto Christ and be perfected in him". Okay, so we know that we are to come unto him, but how?! We know what we want/want to do, but the struggle is understanding how to come unto him. Matthew 5:3-10 tells us step by step how to come unto Christ, through the atonement. The steps are: humility, mourning, meekness, hunger and thirst for righteousness, mercy, become pure in heart, become a peacemaker and be persecuted for righteousness. We can't expect to come to know Christ without using the atonement that he graciously suffered for us, so that we could be forgiven and be released from suffering.

     Because Christ suffered for us, we must use his atonement to show our love and commitment for him. If we can't forgive others, we're saying "I'm good enough to use the atonement but you aren't. What you've done is greater than Christ's sacrifice". When we do this, we completely undermine the significance of the idea that Christ's atonement is for all. We must use the steps given to us in Matthew to truly forgive. We must fill the gaps in the stairs and take the next step. We can't sit down on the steps and hope things will become better on their own, or think all is lost and quit.

     Ironically, the hardest person for most of to forgive is ourselves. It's sad, but true. When we don't forgive ourselves, we sit on the steps and stop any progression. We allow ourselves to be defined by our past mistakes rather than our future potential. We tell Jesus no! We tell him that what he suffered isn't enough because our badness is bigger than his goodness and grace. We can't let the 'history' part of us hold the 'present' us from moving on. Don't let it hold you hostage. Satan wants us to be bound by our badness, not our potential greatness.

     I know that by using the steps given to us, we can truly forgive ourselves and others. When we become pure in heart through humility, mourning, meekness, hunger and thirsting for righteousness and mercy, the Lord takes care of the rest. He wants us to come unto him and be perfected. We must allow him to help us. He's already given it to us, we just must reach out and accept and use it.