Forgiveness

There is a passage of scripture that has always intrigued me ever since my mission. That passage is found in 1 Nephi 7:8-21. I won’t put all the scriptures because it's a lot of verses, but this passage is about Nephi, his brothers and the family of Ishamael and when they are returning to their father in the wilderness from Jerusalem. Laman and Lemuel start murmuring get mad at Nephi, so Nephi starts asking them questions, questions that are direct and probably, in the eyes of Laman and Lemuel, offensive. Nephi goes on for a couple of versus asking them questions then he starts to preach to them. Laman and Lemuel get upset about it all and they take Nephi and bind him with cords and seek after his life "that the might leave me in the wilderness to be devoured by wild beasts." Now if I were Nephi I would probably be frustrated with them and not too happy for wanting me to be killed by wild beasts but Nephi isn't focused on that at all, his whole mindset is always towards the Lord. Verse 17 is a famous verse for teaching us how to ask for things which puts even more emphasis on how Nephi's mindset is. After Nephi becomes free he speaks again to his brothers, now we don't know what he said but it made his brothers get even more mad and "they were angry with me again, and sought to lay hands upon me." Some of the family of Ishmael intervened so that Laman and Lemuel would stop trying to kill Nephi, so after they stop they began to feel sorrowful because of their wickedness. Now the part that calls my attention is in the next verse, verse 21. 

21 And it came to pass that I did frankly forgive them all that they had done, and I did exhort them that they would pray unto the Lord their God for forgiveness. And it came to pass that they did so. And after they had done praying unto the Lord we did again travel on our journey towards the tent of our father.

I love the word “frankly” that Nephi uses. The definition of frankly is "in an open, honest, and direct manner." Nephi, still being open and direct just like he was before, forgives them. Even though there was the potential of him being killed by his brothers he is sincere, honest, truthful and loving when he does forgive them. This is, for me, one of the greatest examples Nephi gave. Forgiveness is a huge part of the Gospel and yet it is one of the most difficult to do. This example speaks powerful truths and can change hearts. The example gets better though. After he forgave them he exhorted them to pray to God, to ask His forgiveness. He is always looking for ways to teach. He didn't rebuke them, he didn't yell or scream at them, he forgave and taught, which I believe is a very powerful principle everyone could learn and improve. This principle gives you a lot to think about.