Skip to main content

Compassion

I read this post on my friend's blog and asked her if I could repost it here. Note, it has been edited for length and clarity.

One Sunday an adorable 12-year-old boy was passing the sacrament for the first time, and I happened to be sitting in his line of duty. I have long since forgotten exactly what happened (and which new, adorable deacon it was), but that new, adorable deacon made some silly mistake, some noticeable breach of “protocol,” in passing the sacrament to me. My heart went out to him in complete and immediate forgiveness. I instantly excused his mistake, thinking, “It’s okay. He’s never done this before.”

As my heart turned back to its repentant self-reflection, I realized that perhaps the Savior looks on us that way sometimes.

“It’s okay. You’ve never done this before.”

Never tried to get through sacrament meeting (or life) with three little kids while pregnant before. Never had this or that calling before. Never tried to x while also dealing with y before.

Do we show ourselves a gentle heart ("Lord, I Would Follow Thee," Hymn #220)? Are we harsh and unforgiving with ourselves? Whatever we struggle with, whether it’s new or intimidating or scary or just plain hard, I am confident that the Lord is reaching out to us, to encourage and understand us, even when we feel no one can. We can be kind to ourselves and understand that we’ve “never done this before” and it’s okay.

It also struck me how important it is to forgive each other freely and completely. We should reach out with the same understanding and compassion we hope to receive from the Lord. There’s no place in Zion – and certainly not in our families – for fault-finding, nitpicking, or bitterness. There’s always more going on than meets the eye. Let’s all cut ourselves a little slack as we move, and help each other move, onward and upward.

Challenge: Have compassion on yourself next time you make a mistake.
Labels:

Comments

Mrs.Smith said…
You did a great job editing. I should have you "proofread" all my posts! :)
May 31, 2010 at 2:52 PM
Anonymous said…
this commentary on compassion reminds me why I love you so much-DAD
June 12, 2010 at 2:26 AM
Anonymous said…
Yes, sometimes we are hard on ourselves when we are not "perfect".
Mom
July 11, 2010 at 5:15 PM
Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Callings

lds.org The Church runs on volunteered time and service, organized through callings. We choose to accept or reject these callings when Church leaders extend them to us. When we are faced with this choice we must remember the following: Church leaders truly are inspired from heaven. They know where we need to serve. We must not doubt them even if it is difficult not to. There are many reasons why a certain calling is right for us. Most obvious, we have the necessary qualities and skills for that position or, conversely, we need to develop the needed qualities and skills. Other reasons may not even be related to the calling. In my case, I needed to meet a certain person, who shared the same calling. We have since become close friends and blessings in each other's lives. When we magnify our callings, everyone benefits. We grow and the ward grows; we learn and the ward learns; we love and the ward loves us back. Every calling in the ward is important. 1 Corinthians 12:12-27 e...
3 comments
Read more

Pray Always

Last week I shared powerful scriptures to remember when faced with temptation. However, the devil is very powerful as well. We need a lot more tools than just a scripture to defeat him. The most powerful tool available to us is prayer. Brigham Young said, “Prayer keeps a man from sin. Sin keeps a man from prayer.” Prayer keeps a man from sin The Lord admonishes throughout the scriptures to pray always to avoid sin: “Watch ye and pray, lest ye enter into temptation. The spirit truly is ready, but the flesh is weak” (Mark 14:38) “Pray always, that you may come off conqueror; yea, that you may conquer Satan, and that you may escape the hands of the servants of Satan that do uphold his work” (D&C 10:5) “Therefore let the church take heed and pray always, lest they fall into temptation” (D&C 20:33) “Pray always, lest ye enter into temptation and lose your reward” (D&C 31:12) “Pray always that you enter not into temptation, that you may abide the day of his coming, whether in lif...
3 comments
Read more

Little Girls No More

Read this article . And we wonder why girls as young as eleven are losing their virginity and why there are so many sexual predators out there. The company argues the padding is for modesty. On the one hand, that is understandable. My little sister went through puberty very early, and my mom had a hard time finding a little-girl bathing suit that covered my sister completely. On the other hand, if parents are so worried about modesty, why are they letting their little girls wear bikinis, especially if they are starting to blossom at a young age? Why can't little girls just be little girls? They'll have the rest of their lives to be grown women. Childhood lasts only for a brief moment. And once it's over, most everyone wishes at some time or other that they could go back. I apologize this isn't actually a doctrinal post. But this problem of sexualizing our little girls really bothers me. As members of the Church, we must set the example and dress our children modestly fr...
2 comments
Read more