Forgive Everyone

In his talk, Even as Christ Forgives You, So Also Do Ye, Elder Larry J. Echo Hawk quoted many scriptures, including the well-known verse D&C 64:10 " I, the Lord, will forgive whom I will forgive, but of you it is required to forgive all men." I want to focus on this verse, not because I have anything new to say about it, but because its lesson is so important. God wants us to forgive everyone. That includes literally everyone, including both the worst people who ever lived and ourselves. It can be hard to forgive those people. Some of them have done terrible, nigh-unforgivable things, and we are our own worst critics. It's no wonder that it's so difficult to forgive. Yet, for the sake of our own emotional health, we should learn to forgive. There's something cathartic about letting go of the past and deciding to move forward. It's liberating, especially when we're forgiving ourselves.

Of course, we still have to try to learn from our mistakes, and it'd be foolish to fully trust anyone who has done bad things in the past. Unlike God, our forgiveness should not always be accompanied by forgetfulness.But there should always be forgiveness for every wrong-doing, no matter who it was committed by or against. This forgiveness can be difficult to muster, but it is required, probably largely because of its benefits to us, the forgivers. Forgiving others means that we don't have to carry a grudge for them, and forgiving ourselves means that we don't have to carry the guilt. Anyone can repent, and everyone should be forgiven, even if for no one's sake but our own.