DAY #24: He Will Be Slow to Judge and Quick to Forgive

                Isn’t it interesting how for some reason we are often so quick to condemn others for the crimes that we justify in ourselves?  We cannot believe how inconsiderate some people are when they are late, but when we are late it is because traffic was bad and we were held up at work.  We are disgusted when someone gets angry with us, but when we yell it is warranted by the situation.  We have been forgiven an insurmountable debt, and then condemn another for pennies.  It seems like someone will have to stop our hypocritical cyclone with the cry, “We all make mistakes!”

In the beginning of the Book of Mormon there is a story about Nephi and his bow.   In 1Nephi 16:18 Nephi tells us that he went to go hunting and he broke his bow and his brothers were upset with him.   This passage leaves the reader thinking about how terrible Laman and Lemuel must have been to blame their brother for an accident.  As I was reading this I began to wonder how Nephi broke his bow.  What if he was on his way to go hunt and tripped and it broke?  Or what if he saw that his brothers were in a bad mood so he was being silly trying to make them laugh and accidentally stepped on the bow?  All these situations were accidents, but do find that we may get more upset in some of them than we would in others?  Is our anger at Nephi justified due to the situation, while Laman's and Lemuel's was not?  Perhaps we are more like them than we think!

I was buying fast food the other day and the car in front of me sat at the speaker for 10 minutes.  I found myself growing more and more irritated about their ordering incompetence, and then was given a day dream of my car at the ordering point.  I sat and sat and sat and each time I began to order I was met with the reply, “Just one second sir.”  The cars built up behind me and I could feel their annoyed stares.  I had done nothing wrong but I saw all the cars behind me cursing my incompetence.

The man that She deserves will be slow to judge and quick to forgive.  He will remind himself of the many mistakes that he has made that render him incapable of casting perfect judgment.  He will understand that accidents happen and learn to smile and laugh about the inconvenience of it all.  The man that she deserves will recognize that making mistakes and growing is the reason for this life, and that condemning that does no good to anyone.