Forgiveness

The absolute hardest thing in life can be finding this simple word.  Pam and her Aunt Nicole are on speaking terms once again and have found the strength to forgive and reconnect.  This strain on the family has finally been lifted after four months of silence.  I am happy that things have been able to work out the way they did.
Forgiveness is a bringer of happiness and joy, a doorway to a better tomorrow.  When we let it in it heals our hearts and mends our souls.  It truly is a beautiful part of the gospel.
Forgiveness was also a theme in the Holocaust Conference for Educators that I attended down in Scottsdale.  Not only do we need to fight injustice and abuses of power but we also need to remember the humanity of those who are in the wrong and find it within ourselves to forgive them.  When I went to that conference I had expected tips on teaching the subject, to see gruesome pictures, and to hear horror stories and what I got were lessons in morality and in how to live the gospel.
I had expected to feel sick to my stomach at the low depths to which humanity can sink and what I left with was an uplifted and instructed spirit in seeing how humans can keep their humanity, their dignity, and their self respect in terrible circumstances and find kindness and forgiveness in their hearts.
Perhaps everyone is tired of hearing about that conference but it was a truly wonderful experience and an amazing way to see an event in time, not as some stagnant thing that came and went but as a part of who we are and who we should be, what we should stand for and stand against.
Eisenhower on seeing a concentration camp ordered that every American soldier who was not on the front lines needed to see the camp.  "It has been said that most Americans don't know what they're fighting for, now they can at least know what they are fighting against."
Anyway, forgiveness, its a great thing that brings families back together and mends broken hearts.