Two weeks ago in my pathway gathering class for our devotional this thought was giving President Hunter said this
“This Christmas[I would add today] mend a quarrel. Seek out a forgotten friend. Dismiss suspicion and replace it with trust. Write a letter. Give a soft answer. Encourage youth. Manifest your loyalty in word and deed. Keep a promise. Forgo a grudge. Forgive an enemy. Apologize. Try to understand. Examine your demands on others. Think first of someone else. Be kind. Be gentle. Laugh a little more. Express your gratitude. Welcome a stranger. Gladden the heart of a child. Take pleasure in the beauty and wonder of the earth. Speak your love, and then speak it again.”
The part that said forgo a grudge hit me hard because I realized I have been holding onto a grudge for over two years. I didn’t realize it until couple week ago when I saw the person I was holding a grudge towards. After hearing that quote I knew I needed to put things right. You should know I hate conflict and instead of dealing with conflict I will often shut down or turn away from it. I had decided to apologize to this friend that had hurt my feelings and in returned I stopped talking to her for more than two years. Over the last couple of weeks I had noticed her daughter had gymnastics the same time my girls did. I had been avoiding her because I was scared to what might happen if we talked. Last Friday I get to gymnastics and I knew I needed to say something but I extremely nervous to approach her, so when I didn’t see her for the first hour I was there I was kind of relieved. Thirty minutes before Adelaide’s class was suppose to end and I would leave I spotted her three rows in front of me. I got that pit in my stomach like I know I need to say something but how do I get my legs to move and my mouth to say the right words. For those 30 minutes I prayed to know how to do what I know I needed to do. It hit six and my nephew and daughters were done and it was time to go and I had chickened out. Then I realized I would have to walk right by her to leave and before I knew it I was kneeling next to her. I called her by name and said,”I don’t know if you remember me or not, but I owe you an apology. I’m so sorry that I let my hurt feelings make me stop talking to you.” To my surprise she said she was sorry that she was jerk back then and that she had changed a lot over the past two years. Come to find out she moved out of state for two years and just moved back and is living in Cedar Hills. We hugged and she said thank your reaching out.
Don’t let years, months or weeks go by without doing what President Hunter said, mend a quarrel. Seek out a forgotten friend. Dismiss suspicion and replace it with trust. Write a letter. Give a soft answer. Encourage youth. Manifest your loyalty in word and deed. Keep a promise. Forgo a grudge. Forgive an enemy. Apologize. Try to understand. Examine your demands on others. Think first of someone else. Be kind. Be gentle. Laugh a little more. Express your gratitude. Welcome a stranger. Gladden the heart of a child. Take pleasure in the beauty and wonder of the earth. Speak your love, and then speak it again.”
We never know how long any of us have here on this earth so let us not have any regrets. I would like to bare my testimony that I’m grateful for living prophets and apostles that are willing to be Heavenly Father’s mouth pieces to tell us what we need to hear and when. I say these things in the name of Jesus Christ Amen.
