One of the reasons Nephi is my hero is 1 Nephi 7:21. The chapter seven summary states Laman and Lemuel “bind [Nephi] with cords and plan his destruction.” He cords are loosened according to his faith, and they eventually plead with him for forgiveness. Then, in 1 Nephi 7:21 he states (in part) “…I did frankly forgive them all that they had done...”
It humbles me. It reminds me. It gives me hope.
I am sick in bed and really enjoying thinking about these things. :) Thanks, again! I was thinking about this today - his frankness in forgiveness. Interesting choice of words, right? I looked up the word frank in the dictionary. I wonder what Nephi meant. The archaic form says "liberal, generous". Obviously Nephi's brothers were in the wrong, and yet, he gave forgiveness liberally and generously. Freely. Sincerely. I ask my kids to give and ask for forgiveness about 3 dozen times per day. I can sometimes see them grit their teeth and say the words but not mean them. I do the same thing. My pride gets in the way too often. IT makes me think of D&C 19:15-17 - a scripture that talks about repentance - forgiveness's other half - "..I command you to repent...lest I smite you...For behold, I, God, have suffered these things for all, that they might not suffer if they would repent; But if they would not repent, they must suffer even as I." Pres. Eyring spoke about this scripture. He said we commonly feel like the choice we have is between repenting and not repenting. But that is a falsehood. Our two choices are not 1) repenting and 2) not repenting, they are between 1) repenting and 2) suffering. Unless we want to suffer, we MUST repent. Freely forgiving, liberally forgiving, generously forgiving - if I am not doing those things, I have reason to repent. If I do not repent and become like Nephi, a frank forgiver, well, then I will suffer. Okay, I think I'll drag my sorry bum out of bed and show my kids what Nephi was talking about. :) Happy Friday!
ReplyDeleteI think we do suffer when we don't forgive. The suffering doesn't wait until we die. We suffer now. We lack peace when we can't forgive. Sometimes it can be so hard to forgive, but I have a real testimony that if we pray Heavenly Father can help us know what it is to 'frankly forgive.' Thanks for you comment. As always, it got me thinking, and I love that.
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