As the first blog post, I'm going with what a typical post on this blog will be like, saving the introduction for later.
In the Saturday morning session of General Conference, the parable of debt forgiveness was shared. It reminded me of a fence we share with a neighbor. We moved into a new neighborhood with no fences, and one of the first things we wanted to do was to build a fence. Like they say, good fences make good neighbors. We asked our neighbors to chip in, but none had the resources to do so at the time. We wanted it enough to put it up on our own.
The neighborhood was new, so the fencing company said it wasn't necessary for us to have it surveyed to have the corners marked -- they would have been marked by the builder.
The fence went up. Things were good. A couple of years passed and some more neighbors put in fences. Our neighbor to the southwest surveyed before they put in their fence, and found that our single shared fence post was 12-18" too far into our neighbor's side. From what was related to me, the builder never paid the surveyors fully, but the original surveyors were legally obligated to put in the markers. So they weren't very precise. We told our neighbors to the west about the problem, and offered to move the fence, but they said it was no big deal. They forgave it.
We have a different fence post shared with the same neighbors, that is where our gate to our backyard is anchored. Over the years we've had to adjust the hinges a few times to allow the gate to keep opening. Recently it's been adjusted as much as it will go. The post is slowly leaning in so the gateway is getting more and more narrow. A few weeks ago I came home to find the neighbors had a boat in their side yard, and it was leaning against that fence post. I was upset at first, but then realized that our friendship was worth more than the fence. If it ruins the gate so it can't be used, we can tear it out.
Now the point of this: During conference, I was taught that if I'm willing to forgive my friendly neighbor for probably ruining the gate, I should also readily forgive anyone of similar offenses... of all offenses. Even my grumpy neighbors down the street.
In the Saturday morning session of General Conference, the parable of debt forgiveness was shared. It reminded me of a fence we share with a neighbor. We moved into a new neighborhood with no fences, and one of the first things we wanted to do was to build a fence. Like they say, good fences make good neighbors. We asked our neighbors to chip in, but none had the resources to do so at the time. We wanted it enough to put it up on our own.
The neighborhood was new, so the fencing company said it wasn't necessary for us to have it surveyed to have the corners marked -- they would have been marked by the builder.
The fence went up. Things were good. A couple of years passed and some more neighbors put in fences. Our neighbor to the southwest surveyed before they put in their fence, and found that our single shared fence post was 12-18" too far into our neighbor's side. From what was related to me, the builder never paid the surveyors fully, but the original surveyors were legally obligated to put in the markers. So they weren't very precise. We told our neighbors to the west about the problem, and offered to move the fence, but they said it was no big deal. They forgave it.
We have a different fence post shared with the same neighbors, that is where our gate to our backyard is anchored. Over the years we've had to adjust the hinges a few times to allow the gate to keep opening. Recently it's been adjusted as much as it will go. The post is slowly leaning in so the gateway is getting more and more narrow. A few weeks ago I came home to find the neighbors had a boat in their side yard, and it was leaning against that fence post. I was upset at first, but then realized that our friendship was worth more than the fence. If it ruins the gate so it can't be used, we can tear it out.
Now the point of this: During conference, I was taught that if I'm willing to forgive my friendly neighbor for probably ruining the gate, I should also readily forgive anyone of similar offenses... of all offenses. Even my grumpy neighbors down the street.
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