Forgiving Self Position Statement

We are told that God will choose who to forgive, but we are required to forgive all men.  That "all men" includes ourselves.  When we have made big mistakes, those kind of mistakes that are life changing and hurt the ones we love the most, it is hard to get past them, hard to forgive ourselves.  Yet, we are still commanded to do so.  Guilt has its place.  It is a powerful tool that the Lord uses to motivate us towards repentance.  But once it has done its job, it is to be let go, absorbed through the atonement of Christ.  If we choose to hang onto it, guilt becomes Satan’s tool to hamper our progress.  It is wasted effort to cling to guilt or to covet the life we once had.  Once repentance is complete and we have done everything we can to rectify our wrongs, we must embrace the lessons we have learned and let go of the pain of the past.  We have to stop looking back and move forward. We must forgive ourselves.