Last August my family and I moved into a new home. With a new home comes a new ward, new callings, new friends, etc... With all these new things i have found a new diamond. Last week Camie and I gave talks in Sacrament meeting. I felt we did ok, but word got back to us that a woman in the ward had not liked our talks so much, in fact she criticized Camies talk and called me self righteous. Well as you can imagine our feelings were hurt and I thought of one hundred things we could do to respond to such criticism. I thought I would go up to this woman and say hi and apologize for not introducing myself earlier and that I didn't want to come off as self righteous. I also thought of printing off some conference talks on gossip, charity, and judging and leaving them on her door step. I also thought maybe some water balloons would do the trick, or a nice pie to the face. But then the diamond came shinning through. I was taken back to my reading of the Miracle of Forgiveness by Spencer W Kimball. There is a story that hit me like a ton of pie filled water balloons: " I was struggling with a community problem in a small ward in the East where two prominent men, leaders of the people, were deadlocked in a long and unrelenting feud. Some misunderstanding between them had driven them far apart with enmity. As the days, weeks and months passed, the breach became wider. The families of each conflicting party began to take up the issue and finally nearly all the people of the ward were involved. Rumors spread and differences were aired and gossip became tongues of fire until the little community was divided by a deep gulf. I was sent to clear up the matter. After a long stake conference, lasting most of two days, I arrived at the frustrated community about 6 p.m., Sunday night, and immediately went into session with the principal combatants. How we struggled! How I pleaded and warned and begged and urged! Nothing seemed to be moving them. Each antagonist was so sure that he was right and justified that it was impossible to budge him. The hours were passing it was now long after midnight, and despair seemed to enshroud the place. The atmosphere was still one of ill temper and ugliness. Stubborn resistance would not give way. Then it happened. I aimlessly opened my Doctrine and Covenants again and there before me it was. I had read it many times in the past years and it had had no special meaning then. But tonight it was the very answer. It was an appeal and an imploring and a threat and seemed to be coming direct from the Lord. I read from the seventh verse on, but the quarreling participants yielded not an inch until I came to the ninth verse. Then I saw them flinch, startled, wondering. Could that be right? The Lord was saying to us-to all of us- "wherefore, I say unto you, that ye ought to forgive one another." This was an obligation. They had heard it before. They had said it in repeating the Lord's Prayer. But how: "... for he that forgiveth not his brother his trespasses standeth condemned before the Lord..." In their hearts, then may have been saying: "Well , I might forgive if he repents and asks forgiveness, but he must make the first move.: Then the full impact of the last line seemed to strike them: "For there remaineth in him the greater sin." What? Does that mean I must forgive even if my antagonist remains cold and indifferent and mean? There is no mistaking it. A common error is the idea that the offender must apologize and humble himself to the dust before forgiveness is required. Certainly, the one ho does the injury should totally make his adjustment, but as for the offended one, hue must forgive the offender regardless of the attitude of the other. Sometimes men get satisfactions from seeing the other party on his knees and grovelling in the dust, but that is not the gospel way. Shocked, the two men sat up, listened, pondered a minute, then began to yield. This scripture added to all the others read brought them to their knees. Two a.m. and two bitter adversaries were shaking hands, smiling and forgiving and asking forgiveness. Two men were in a meaningful embrace. This hour was holy. Old grievances were forgiven and forgotten, and enemies became friends again. No reference was ever made again to the differences." After reading that I thought of all the times I had said something stupid and had to ask for forgiveness like when I was sarcastic about a comment my mission president had said just to realize he was right behind me, or the time I gossiped about a man I didn't even know, and had to go ashamed and humbled to ask for forgiveness. Both times in my life both men were more then gracious with their forgiveness. So I would be a hypocrite if I didn't forgive openly. The second I decided that I felt the loving feeling of the spirit bring me the Diamond of Forgiveness.
