Paisley: Hello, my friends. Welcome back. Paisley.
Imperfect. Here again, and today we are going to talk about
mercy. I wanted to talk about mercy last time, but then I came
across that talk from elder oaks, then elder oaks about love
and laws, and felt that I needed to talk about that. So this
time, I decided I wanted to go back and talk about mercy, and
actually talk about mercy. And today, my thoughts are all
focused around a talk by President Uchtdorf called the
merciful obtain mercy. And I'm probably in this episode at
least. I'm probably not going to get into a lot of detail on why
I personally needed this talk. Suffice it to say that it was
humbling, and I certainly have some work to do. And you know,
sometimes when I'm putting these episodes together, as I'm
reading through these talks, and I'm kind of taking my notes and
collecting my thoughts around these talks. Sometimes I just
want to be like, I'm just going to read it to you, because you
have to just hear this. Or I'm just going to go ahead and play
it for you, and then I'm going to stop and be like, did you
hear that? Did you catch that? It can be a little painful to
watch General Conference with me. Not gonna lie, sometimes
I'll just be like, to my husband, did you catch that? Did
you hear what he just said right there? And he'll be like, wait,
what? No, I'm trying to listen to the next thing that he's
saying. Anyway, President Uchtdorf, he starts by talking
about human relationships. And that makes sense, really,
because there are two ultimate effects of mercy. There's the
effect that it has on those to whom we grant mercy, and it has
an effect on us. He says, quote, I imagine that every person on
earth has been affected in some way by the destructive spirit of
contention, resentment and revenge. Perhaps there are even
times when we recognize this spirit in ourselves, when we
feel hurt, angry or envious, it is quite easy to judge other
people, often assigning dark motives to their action, their
actions, in order to justify our own feelings of resentment. And
if anything felt familiar to me, that was it. I do sometimes
recognize that spirit in myself as I've gotten older, I've
gotten better at letting things go, not worrying about them so
much. And the older that I get, the harder I work on, letting
them go faster, just letting things completely roll off, not
overthinking it, just letting it go. But one of the thoughts that
came that kept coming back to me when I was thinking about mercy
and the some of the things that President Uchtdorf was saying,
one of the things that kept coming back to my mind was, but
what about when I meet someone new? Because I'll be honest, I
in the last four or five years or so, I've been fairly deeply
hurt by people that I was very close to, and it's had an effect
on my ability to trust people immediately, to immediately
trust people I used to be. I used to be able to trust people
until they gave me a reason not to, and now I have a harder
time. It's, it's it's more like you have to earn my trust. And
that's not, that's not how I want to be. I want to be. I
can't say that. I want to be the way I was before, but I want to
have that, that skill again, to be able to trust until, until
I'm given a reason not to. I'm working on it. But I also think
that that it's relevant. President Uchtdorf continues a
little bit later in his talk. He says, when it comes to our own
prejudices and grievances, we too often justify our anger as
righteous and our judgment as reliable and only appropriate.
Though we cannot look into another's heart, we assume that
we know a bad motive or even a bad person when we see one. We
make exceptions when it comes to our own bitterness, because we
feel that in our case, we have all the information we need to
hold someone else in contempt, guilty. I've done that. I think
I'm currently doing that, and I am very glad that I am not
expected to be perfect in this life. I'm only expected to try.
I. I'm also grateful for the understanding and the patience
that my savior has for me, because I have plenty of
shortcomings that must be very frustrating. Makes me think of
that talk from elder Holland, and it might be the one that
we're listening to this week be therefore perfect. Eventually.
It might be that when I'm I don't know. We'll find out, but
that talk that elder Holland gave, where he talks about how
frustrating it must be for God to work with imperfect people.
Anyway, back to President Uchtdorf. He gives a little bit
more that actually provides some real hope. He says, When the
Lord requires that we forgive all men, that includes forgiving
ourselves. Sometimes, of all the people in the world, the one who
is the hardest to forgive, as well as perhaps the one who is
most in need of our forgiveness, is the person looking back at us
in the mirror. So the Lord requires that we forgive all
men, including ourselves. This is also the talk that President
Uchtdorf gave, where he gave his two word sermon. I kind of
vaguely remember him saying this, because I remember
thinking just like, wait what? And kind of chuckling a little
bit. He says quote when it comes to hating, gossiping, ignoring,
ridiculing, holding grudges or wanting to cause harm. Please
apply the following. Stop it. And I love this part where he
says, I don't know exactly how to articulate this point of not
judging others with sufficient eloquence, passion and
persuasion to make it stick. I can quote Scripture. I can try
to expound doctrine, and I will even quote a bumper sticker I
recently saw. It was attached to the back of a car whose driver
appeared to be a little rough around the edges, but the words
on the sticker taught an insightful lesson. It read,
don't judge me because I sinned differently than you. What I
love about this is how he says, I don't know how to articulate
this point of not judging others with sufficient eloquence,
passion and persuasion to make it stick. I don't know how else
to tell it. I'm putting words in his mouth, and not that he will
ever hear this, but if he ever did, I apologize. But I feel
this way often. I don't know how to articulate this point of not
judging others with sufficient eloquence, passion and
persuasion to make it stick. I don't know how else to say this
for you guys to get it. I feel that way with my kids sometimes,
like, how many times do I have to say stop it, stop fighting.
How many times do I have to say that before you're going to get
it. That's kind of what I feel like President Uchtdorf is
saying here anyway. So he's talking about he don't judge me
because I sin differently than you, right? And as I've been
thinking about this, and I've been thinking about mercy. And
reading through this, I've put I've kind of put together the
connection between judging others and loving mercy, judging
and mercy, justice and mercy. The eternal peanut butter and
jelly, right? One without the other is either too sweet or too
sticky, but both of them together are the perfect amount
of sweet, sticky mess, and that's justice and mercy, the
eternal peanut butter and jelly. But I'm not here to talk about
justice and mercy today, just mercy. Someday, maybe we'll
tackle the justice and mercy thing. I think that President
Packer did the most amazing job of that that I've ever seen.
There's a video of it somewhere. I'll see if I can find it and
link it in the show notes. But he he just uses one of the
Savior's parable, the parable of the debtor talks about justice
and mercy. I'm going off on a tangent. Anyway. We're just
talking about mercy, not justice. We all need mercy,
because none of us are perfect, and we as humans are incapable
of making up for our mistakes. We are incapable of making up
for the eternal impact of our mistakes. But there is hope,
there is hope and there are conditions. So we all need
mercy, because none of us are perfect. We all need the Mercy
provided to us by both our Savior and our and our father.
But again, there are conditions. I'm gonna get to the hope, but
the conditions I always feel like we need. We need the rules
first, right? And then we get to the hope. Partly. Her the
doctrine so this is from President Uchtdorf, the rules,
if you will. The doctrine is clear. We all depend on the
Savior. None of us can be saved without him. Christ's Atonement
is infinite and eternal. Forgiveness for our sins comes
with conditions. Here they are. He says, we must repent and we
must be willing to forgive others. And then he gives us the
secret to being able to forgive others and ourselves. So here's
the hope. He says, How is it done through the love of God?
When our hearts are filled with the love of God, something good
and pure happens to us. We keep His commandments, and His
commandments are not grievous, For whatsoever is born of God
overcometh the world. The more we allow the love of God to
govern our minds and emotions, the more we allow our love for
our Heavenly Father to swell within our hearts, the easier it
is to love others with the pure love of Christ. As we open our
hearts to the glowing Dawn of the love of God, the darkness
and cold of animosity and envy will eventually fade now, I did
not feel Christ like love for the young man in the Costco
parking lot yesterday who was losing his mind over the way I
was waiting for a parking spot. I just didn't my ill will
towards him was very strong in that moment, but I also now have
a better understanding of how sometimes you can just get stuck
in a Costco parking lot and not be able to move out of somebody
else's way. I've been I've been the one in his shoes stuck
behind somebody who wouldn't move. Perhaps they couldn't
move. There wasn't anywhere for me to go. I hope in the future
to be more merciful, graceful to the people who are stuck in
front of me. More from President Uchtdorf quote, the pure love of
Christ can remove the scales of resentment and wrath from our
eyes, allowing us to see others the way our Heavenly Father sees
us as flawed and imperfect mortals who have potential and
worth far beyond our capacity to imagine. Did you notice the
slightly different way that that was phrased? It will allow us to
see others the way Heavenly Father sees us. It didn't say it
will allow us to see others the way Heavenly Father sees them.
He said it will allow others to see it will allow us to see
others the way Heavenly Father sees us, so we can see them as
flawed and imperfect mortals who have potential and worth far
beyond our capacity to imagine. We can see others that way. The
part to focus on is the potential. Okay? So two last
things from President Uchtdorf. Number one, there is enough
heartache and sorrow in this life without our adding to it
through our own stubbornness, bitterness and resentment. We
are not perfect. Here comes the hope part. Right? The people
around us are not perfect. People do things that annoy,
disappoint and anger in this mortal life, it will always be
that way. Nevertheless, we must let go of our grievances. Part
of the purpose of mortality is to learn how to let go of such
things. This is Part of this is literally part of why we are
here, to learn how to let go of these things that hold us back.
Let it go.
And lastly, so here's the second thing, the last thing from
President Uchtdorf. He said, Remember, heaven is filled with
those who have this in common, and I imagine people in heaven,
the spirit world, spirit paradise, however you imagine
the afterlife. I imagine people in heaven. And he says that they
have the this thing in common. They are forgiven and they
forgive. So Heaven is full of people who have been forgiven,
and who are forgiving. We've talked about daily repentance
quite a bit in the last probably week and a half. Talked about
daily repentance and making it a part of us, just becoming a
little bit better every day. It's. Sounds kind of like we
also may need to work on daily forgiveness, daily mercy. It's
it could very well just be me. I doubt it though we could work on
daily forgiveness, giving mercy to those that we can, and
allowing the Savior to heal our hearts. We will be forgiven as
we forgive and repent. Remember, those were the two conditions
that he gave us. We have to repent and we have to forgive in
order for us to be forgiven. It sounds like a lot, but remember,
it's a process. It's not something that we have to be
good at by tomorrow at five o'clock, this is something that
is a process that will take us our entire lives, and it's okay.
We are not perfect. The people around us are not perfect. They
are going to do things that annoy, disappoint and anger in
this mortal life. It will always be that way. We are okay. We
just have to keep trying. That's all okay, my friends, thank you
so much for spending your time with me. I really do appreciate
the time that you spend. Keep learning, keep growing, keep
repenting, keep forgiving, you know, keep on, keepin on and
until next time, my friends, thank you.