"The first to apologize is the bravest.  The first to forgive is the strongest.  The first to forget is the happiest."

as published in Guideposts magazine, May 2014, p. 15 volume 69, issue 3, submitted by reader Melanie Samoy-Lutz

Jeffrey R. Holland

"...for me there is no greater amazement and no more difficult personal challenge than when, after the anguish in Gethsemane, after being mocked, beaten, and scourged, Jesus staggers under his load to the crest of Calvary and says, “Father, forgive them; for they know not what they do.” (Luke 23:34.)

If ever there is a moment when I indeed stand all amazed, it is here, for this is an amazement of a different kind. So much of the mystery of his power and ministry tear at my mind: the circumstances of his birth, the breadth and variety of his ministry and miracles, the self-summoned power of his resurrection—before all of these I stand amazed and say, “How did he do it?”

But here with disciples who abandoned him in his hour of greatest need, here fainting under the weight of his cross and the sins of all mankind which were attached to it, here rent by piercing spikes in his palms and in his wrists and in his feet—here now the amazement tears not at my mind but at my heart, and I ask not “How did he do it?” but “Why did he do it?”

It is here that I examine my life, not against the miraculousness of his, but against the mercifulness of it, and it is here I find how truly short I fall in emulation of the Master."

Jeffrey R. Holland, I Stand All Amazed, Ensign Aug. 1986

Jeffrey R. Holland

Whoever you are and whatever you have done, you can be forgiven. Every one of you young men can leave behind any transgression with which you may struggle. It is the miracle of forgiveness; it is the miracle of the Atonement of the Lord Jesus Christ. But you cannot do it without an active commitment to the gospel, and you cannot do it without repentance where it is needed.

Jeffrey R. Holland, General Conference, October 2011, Priesthood Session

Sterling W. Sill

“God’s forgiveness is often nullified because the sinner does not forgive himself. What good does it do for God to blot our evil from his mind, if we continue to let it dominate our thinking by rerunning it in our own?”

Sterling W. Sill, What Doth It Profit, p. 179

Spencer W. Kimball

Sometimes a guilt consciousness overpowers a person with such a heaviness that when a repentant one looks back and sees the ugliness, the loathsomeness of the transgression, he is almost overwhelmed and wonders, ‘Can the Lord ever forgive me? Can I ever forgive myself?’ But when one reaches the depths of despondency and feels the hopelessness of his position, and when he cries out to God for mercy not in helplessness but in faith, there comes a still, small, but penetrating voice whispering to his soul, ‘Thy sins are forgiven thee’.

The Miracle of Forgiveness [Salt Lake City: Bookcraft, 1969], p. 344

Franklin D. Richards

Certainly in our homes we can all be peacemakers by exhibiting love and goodwill, thus offsetting the evil of contention, envy, and jealousy.  Where misunderstandings exist between children and parents, we can encourage adjustments on the part of both.  We can pray together for the spirit of peace. ... We can be a peacemaker by avoiding criticism. ... We can be a peacemaker by practicing and teaching forgiveness.  Jesus was asked how many times one should be forgiven, and he replied that we should forgive without limit.

Franklin D. Richards, Ensign Nov 1974, 105