220-Lord I would Follow Thee Nerd Glasses& pocket full of pens

Nerd-bully scenario: How many times must I say “It’s okay. You didn’t mean it.” or “I forgive you”?

“Based on the 1992 gold standard, 100 pence= $5,000 and 10,000 talents=$3 Billion. 100 pence of forgiveness is what we are expected to give one another. This is precious little to ask in contrast to the 10,000 talents Christ extends to us. Our debt is astronomical, almost incomprehensible. Jesus was teaching the eternal scope and profound gift of His mercy, His forgiveness, and His Atonement for each of us. The astounding figure was used because it was never intended that there should be any hope of escape, any light at the end of that dark debt-ridden tunnel, without the redeeming light of Christ’s Atonement. It was never intended in this parable that this could be any sum that man could work himself out of. If a man paid that debt at the rate of $1000 a day ($365,000 a year), it would take exactly 8,219 years, 2 months, and 4 days. In other words, if the man started on the afternoon of the day Adam and Eve walked out of the Garden of Eden, and paid every single day until this day he would still owe $813 million. And we haven’t billed a cent of interest” (Jeffrey R. Holland, August 2000 CES conference).

“Not only our eternal salvation depends upon our willingness and capacity to forgive wrongs committed against us. Our joy and satisfaction in this life, and our true freedom, depend upon our doing so…. “Even if it appears that another may be deserving of our resentment or hatred, none of us can afford to pay the price of resenting or hating, because of what it does to us…. “God help us rid ourselves of resentment and pettiness and foolish pride; to love, and to forgive, in order that we may be friends with ourselves, with others, and with the Lord” (Marion D. Hanks, New Era, 6/74, p.6).

Pres. Hinckley ForgivenessPres. Hinckley Forgiveness Turkey story at 11:35

Lost Sheep (Luke 15:4-7) Lost Piece of Silver (Luke 15:8-10) Lost [Prodigal] Son (Luke 15:11-32) Read each of these parables, pausing long enough between parables to review with a friend the contents of the parable and its interpretation. After reading all three, discuss: Why would the Savior tell these three parables consecutively? What is the difference between the three lost items? What commonalities are there in the three parables?

Happily, mingled among the hundreds of thousands of “recruits” will be precious returnees who, like the prodigal son, have come to their senses. Filled with tender resolve, they, too, need a warm welcome. Let us emulate the father of the prodigal son, who ran to greet his son while the son was still a great distance away, rather than waiting passively and then skeptically asking the son if he had merely come home to pick up his things! (Neal A. Maxwell, “The Net Gathers of Every Kind,” Ensign, Nov 1980, 14)

This son is not so much angry that the other has come home as he is angry that his parents are so happy about it. Feeling unappreciated and perhaps more than a little self-pity, this dutiful son—and he is wonderfully dutiful—forgets for a moment that he has never had to know filth or despair, fear or self-loathing. He forgets for a moment that every calf on the ranch is already his and so are all the robes in the closet and every ring in the drawer. He forgets for a moment that his faithfulness has been and always will be rewarded. No, he who has virtually everything, and who has in his hardworking, wonderful way earned it, lacks the one thing that might make him the complete man of the Lord he nearly is. He has yet to come to the compassion and mercy, the charitable breadth of vision to see that this is not a rival returning. It is his brother. As his father pled with him to see, it is one who was dead and now is alive. It is one who was lost and now is found.(Jeffrey R. Holland, “The Other Prodigal,” Ensign, May 2002, 62)