"Repentance and Forgiveness in Family Life"

Chapter 20 is one that I felt was extremely important to touch on in my blog series. This chapter is all about repentance and forgiveness in family life. No person on this earth is perfect, and there will be times, especially in our families when people will mess up and hurt us. It’s so important that we remember what the Savior has asked us to do in those moments, forgive. It is required of us to forgive everyone, but that can be extremely hard in certain family situations. I heard about times in families where forgiveness took a long time and other times when it came easily.

"I grew up with an abusive father. And it has taken me years to get to the point of forgiveness. And even now it's still hard for me somedays. I used to be so angry at him for treating us the way he did. He caused a lot of pain and left a lot of scars, both physically and mentally. He never did apologize for any of it, but I knew that the only way I would be able to find any real peace in my life I would have to find a way to forgive him for all of the terrible things he did. Forgiveness is not always easy. In fact, usually it's really hard, but it's worth it. And it's a choice you'll have to make daily, to keep forgiving someone for something bad they did. But it's the only way you can move forward in life."

"I think forgiveness is important in families. In my own family, we have to forgive each other frequently! Sometimes we say things when we're grumpy, hungry, angry, tried or stressed. We say mean things and have to go back and apologize or accept someone else's apology. It's just what you do though, they're family...you're kind of stuck with them!"