A Forgiving Heart

When my heart and desire has inched far away,
And my focus has found my depth perception waning,
I strain to see how my small choices have led me,
To stand in wonder, lost in my life’s will declining.

To seek for forgiveness and find it wanting,
While justice seeks rightly for its own demand.
Turns my heart back to words meant to rancor,
That in turn cause my sweetheart to drop my hand.

The power of a word escaped from a tongue,
Can cut deeper than a two-edged sword in hands.
Yet deeply it cuts on both edges it touches,
While anger swirls the mind it commands.

How can I turn from my world I’ve created?
Of nails driven deeply in tender tables of the heart.
Wounded and hurting while memories persist,
Wishing in contrast the pain would depart.

Earning that trust passed through portals of pain,
Can with decades of good still remain unjustified.
Yet persistent regret and timeless whispers,
Can someday earn enduring rewards now justified.

A forgiving heart may in time break the bands,
That have discarded and ignored loves demand.
Forgiveness is earned through timeless love,
As he who seeks for retribution reaches their hand.

It is not for us to decide whom God will forgive,
But to find that peace only he can send.
Deciding we’ll follow his Son’s divine command,
Allowing our souls and loved ones to mend.

David S. Maughan
1/23/2022

The Tongue Can Be a Sharp Sword (churchofjesuschrist.org)

“Of You It Is Required to Forgive” (churchofjesuschrist.org)

Neh 9:17; Psalms 86:5; Luke 7:47; 17:3;