Forgiving God

On January 10th, I learned that my plan for my life was not in line with God's plan for my life at the present moment.  My faith was strong enough to help me let go of everything I had worked towards, everything I thought I deserved, and all the righteous goals I was trying to fulfill because my Heavenly Father was telling me now was not the time.  I did as He asked me to do, but I was hurt and I was mad.

The next day, while at church, I heard a beautiful lesson on love.  I'll be honest, I only listened to a little of it, my heart still hurt too much, but I remember the beginning.  The young woman who was teaching asked us how we show someone that we love them.  The room was filled with the typical comments: tell them, spend time with them, serve them, forgive them, consider their desires, the list went on.  We were then asked how we show that we love God.  Many people quickly recognized how we can apply the answers to the first question.  We can tell God we love him through prayer.  We can spend time with God by attending the church and studying the scriptures. etc. etc...

But one thing was not brought up again.  To show a person we love them, we forgive them.  Yet for some reason, no one said this is a way we can show that we love our Heavenly Father. Forgiveness is often associated with sin, and of course, Heavenly Father doesn't sin.  So you might ask, why would we need to forgive God?

In the October General Conference of 1973, Elder Hanks asked the following in regards to forgiveness, "What is our response when we are offended, misunderstood, unfairly or unkindly treated, or sinned against, made an offender for a word, falsely accused, passed over, hurt by those we love, our offering rejected?"

I found myself needing to forgive God.  He had not sinned against me, but Elder Hanks did not only ask for our response to the sins and mistakes.  He asked about our response when we are hurt by those we love or when our offerings are rejected.

I approached the Lord with my offering: a set of righteous goals and desires and a plan by which I believed, with His help, I could fulfill those goals and desires.  Heavenly Father rejected my offering.  And I was hurt by the person I love most, the person I have been taught loves me more than I can comprehend.

I fought and I prayed for the strength to forgive God. Not because he had sinned against me, for I know that He is perfect, but because I had been hurt by that which I had been asked to do.  Forgiveness is for everyone who hurts us, regardless of their motivation or purpose.  By forgiving those who have sinned against us, we find comfort and healing.  By striving to forgive everyone, we are able to let go of our anger and gain understanding for those who only sought what was best for us.

Forgiveness is for the stranger who steals your wallet.

Forgiveness is for the parents who ground you, seeking to teach you proper behavior and habits.

Forgiveness if for Heavenly Father, when He tells you that you have done your best, but that He has something even better waiting for you.  When He takes away everything you've worked towards and asks you to trust in a plan which He will not yet reveal to you, your strength will come from trusting him.  To trust him, you must forgive him.

The pain doesn't go away, but it becomes just a little easier to live through.

The Four Leaf Clover Strikes Again!

Look what I won!

Yes- I win an Ipad Mini and the first picture taken with it is a picture of its box.


But seriously- I won an Ipad Mini this week!!!  The computer science department at my college held an algorithm challenge over Christmas Break.  I managed to complete all the problems, much help to my family who let me talk all the problems out with them, and thus was entered into a drawing for an Ipad Mini (and several other things, but I was most excited about the Mini). I suppose I really had an unfair advantage since I own two four leaf clovers.  How could I not win exactly what I wanted?

It should be noted- there have been things I've lost since finding these four leaf clovers, it isn't a fail-proof method.

Anyways, this is the first thing I've ever owned which can have apps so I'm a little out of the app loop.  Any suggestions? Preferably free.