Here is a great quote from Teachings of Presidents of the Church: Joseph Fielding Smith:
"Do you spend as much time making your family and home successful as you do in pursuing social and professional success? Are you devoting your best creative energy to the most important unit in society--the family? Or is your relationship with your family merely a routine, unrewarding part of life? Parent and child must be willing to put family responsibilities first in order to achieve family exaltation. ...
"We have been trying to impress upon parents the need of paying more attention to their children, having a little more of the spirit of the gospel in their homes, a little more unity and a little more faith.; a little more responsibility religiously, spiritually on the part of the fathers; also, of the mothers; more of the teaching of the gospel in the home." (Chap. 4, pgs. 79-80)
The great Russian author Leo Tolstoy began his novel Anna Karenina with these words: “Happy families are all alike; every unhappy family is unhappy in its own way.”1
While I do not have Tolstoy’s certainty that happy families are all
alike, I have discovered one thing that most have in common: they have a
way of forgiving and forgetting the imperfections of others and of
looking for the good.
Those in unhappy families, on the other hand, often find fault, hold grudges, and can’t seem to let go of past offenses.
“Yes,
but …” begin those who are unhappy. “Yes, but you don’t know how badly
she hurt me,” says one. “Yes, but you don’t know how terrible he is,”
says another.
Perhaps both are right; perhaps neither.
There
are many degrees of offense. There are many degrees of hurt. But what I
have noticed is that often we justify our anger and satisfy our
consciences by telling ourselves stories about the motives of others
that condemn their actions as unforgivable and egoistic while, at the
same time, lifting our own motives as pure and innocent.
The Prince’s Dog
There
is an old Welsh story from the 13th century about a prince who returned
home to find his dog with blood dripping down its face. The man rushed
inside and, to his horror, saw that his baby boy was missing and his
cradle overturned. In anger the prince pulled out his sword and killed
his dog. Shortly thereafter, he heard the cry of his son—the babe was
alive! By the infant’s side lay a dead wolf. The dog had, in reality,
defended the prince’s baby from a murderous wolf.
Though
this story is dramatic, it demonstrates a point. It opens the
possibility that the story we tell ourselves about why others behave a
certain way does not always agree with the facts—sometimes we don’t even
want to know the facts. We would rather feel self-justified in our
anger by holding onto our bitterness and resentment. Sometimes these
grudges can last months or years. Sometimes they can last a lifetime.
A Family Divided
One
father could not forgive his son for departing from the path he had been
taught. The boy had friends the father did not approve of, and he did
many things contrary to what his father thought he should do. This
caused a rift between father and son, and as soon as the boy could, he
left home and never returned. They rarely spoke again.
Did the father feel justified? Perhaps.
Did the son feel justified? Perhaps.
All I
know is that this family was divided and unhappy because neither father
nor son could forgive each other. They could not look past the bitter
memories they had about each other. They filled their hearts with anger
instead of love and forgiveness.
Each robbed himself of the opportunity to influence the other’s life
for good. The divide between them appeared so deep and so wide that each
became a spiritual prisoner on his own emotional island.
Fortunately,
our loving and wise Eternal Father in Heaven has provided the means to
overcome this prideful gap. The great and infinite Atonement is the
supreme act of forgiveness
and reconciliation. Its magnitude is beyond my understanding, but I
testify with all my heart and soul of its reality and ultimate power.
The Savior offered Himself as ransom for our sins. Through Him we gain forgiveness.
No Family Is Perfect
None
of us is without sin. Every one of us makes mistakes, including you and
me. We have all been wounded. We all have wounded others.
It
is through our Savior’s sacrifice that we can gain exaltation and
eternal life. As we accept His ways and overcome our pride by softening
our hearts, we can bring reconciliation and forgiveness into our
families and our personal lives. God will help us to be more forgiving,
to be more willing to walk the second mile, to be first to apologize
even if something wasn’t our fault, to lay aside old grudges and nurture
them no more. Thanks be to God, who gave His Only Begotten Son, and to
the Son, who gave His life for us.
We
can feel God’s love for us every day. Shouldn’t we be able to give a
little more of ourselves to our fellowmen as taught in the beloved hymn
“Because I Have Been Given Much”?2
The Lord has opened the door for us to be forgiven. Wouldn’t it be only
right to put aside our own egotism and pride and begin to open that
blessed door of forgiveness to those with whom we struggle—especially to
all of our own family?
In
the end, happiness does not spring from perfection but from applying
divine principles, even in small steps. The First Presidency and Quorum
of the Twelve Apostles have declared: “Happiness in family life is most
likely to be achieved when founded upon the teachings of the Lord Jesus Christ. Successful marriages and families are established and maintained on principles of faith, prayer, repentance, forgiveness, respect, love, compassion, work, and wholesome recreational activities.”3
Forgiveness
is positioned right in the middle of these simple truths, founded on
our Heavenly Father’s plan of happiness. Because forgiveness connects
principles, it connects people. It is a key, it opens locked doors, it
is the beginning of an honest path, and it is one of our best hopes for a
happy family.
May
God help us to be a little more forgiving in our families, more
forgiving of each other, and perhaps more forgiving even with ourselves.
I pray that we may experience forgiveness as one wonderful way in which
most happy families are alike.
