If you are seeking healing of any kind - emotional, mental, spiritual, or physical - I suggest implementing a practice of active forgiveness. This was something I was guided to do and it was and continues to be a true miracle in my life!
If you were to search forgiveness and healing on lds.org, you would find abundant evidence for what I’m talking about. It is an eternal truth that forgiveness brings healing. You, of course, get to decide how that looks for you. I’m going to share a tiny glimpse into how I started to apply forgiveness.
I was prompted to write a list of anyone I needed to forgive. I started with myself and went from there. It was too hard (at first) to imagine forgiving certain people and behavior, so I didn’t start there. I started with someone it was easy to imagine forgiving. I said a prayer and just poured out my thoughts and feelings about the person and the situation.. I thought I would feel so wonderful about myself for my desire to grant forgiveness...
what happened, though, was I stopped thinking about myself. I started thinking of my Savior and how He suffered for me and that person because of even this relatively insignificant situation. Then my eyes were opened to the other person’s perspective and the love Heavenly Father has for that person. All my negative feelings seemed to be overshadowed by this divine and infinite love and I was told those negative feelings could be removed completely if I would accept Jesus Christ’s offer to take them.
With this new perspective and position of extreme humility, I easily gave up those feelings and sincerely asked for forgiveness for holding on to them. I cannot express in word the immediate and profound change I felt. Keep in mind, this was forgiveness for something small, yet the experience was a wrestle, insightful, profound, and life changing! It certainly was not what I expected, but it was beautiful. When I was finished I felt closer to my redeemer, I felt lighter, I felt more love, I felt sooo humble and aware of my need to let many things go, and more than anything else, I felt eager to work on the rest of my list! How will you apply forgiveness in your life? Can you start today?
