Justice with no mercy is a pretty tough road, but not a tough call

I was just organizing my Word documents when someehow I managed, by a single click of my mouse, to open dozens of Book of Mormon, Part Two assignments. I was reading through them and I want to occasionally post one on my blog, so my kids can read them. The title of this post is a quote from me in this particular one from March 3rd, 2011. Thank you for reading :)

Make a list of some of the Savior's characteristics you consider to be the most important. Take a personal inventory of your own life with regard to those characteristics and formulate a plan to better fulfill His mandate to be “even as I am.”

      One of the characteristics I consider to be very important that the Savior possesses is that of love for little children. I love little kids, and I have a whole slew of happy younger siblings and neighbor kids to prove it. The problem that I have is patience, so maybe that is more what I am getting at here. When you play with a little kid, it is fun for awhile but then they get hungry, or they need to go to the bathroom or they get grouchy or they're no longer entertained by the same old things and it gets very frustrating very easily. You want to be a nice person and smile at them while they cry and snot runs out of their noses, but it is a tough and sometimes impossible job for me. Jesus Christ always showed love and special attention to the children, and I am sure He never thought an angry thought towards that crying baby during sacrament, or felt an aversion to that smelly diaper.

      In addition to patience with children I could also learn patience in all aspects of my life. Sometimes it is hard to wait, and I find myself blaming others when I don't understand a situation. For example, I recently found out that someone close to me is a pathological liar. At first I was very mad about this. I wanted to confront her in the most embarrassing way possible. I wanted everyone to know about her lies and I wanted them to join me in talking to her about it. My father cautioned me many times about this confrontation I was carefully planning. He said it was not a good idea, but I was beyond reason. I felt extremely betrayed by this person, and I wanted to see her face when she realized the game was up. I had no sympathy for her and rationalized that she “had this coming.” and that we “deserved to have an apology.”

      Well, I would still love one, but I am past a lot of that anger. Jesus, on the other hand, would not feel that anger in the first place. He would feel love and compassion towards her, and above all He would be patient as she tried to figure herself out and eventually fix the problem she had made. And not only that but He would help her along. I considered offering advice but I never knew what to say to her, and honestly neither did anyone else. So since that was the hard way I decided to opt for the easy path- the angry, without understanding path.

      In order to develop patience I need to remember how we are all children of Heavenly Father. It sounds so cliché but it is incredibly true. Also, this girl is not the only one who has made mistakes. Maybe I haven't made the same mistakes, but I am guilty of other things. I need to remember that I will be judged based on how I judge others, and justice with no mercy is a pretty tough road, but not a tough call, and I don't want that for me. I want as much mercy and Christ can dish out, so I need to start being merciful to others as well.