God Sent Me

 Genesis 45:7 says, "Ang God sent me before you to preserve you a posterity in the earth, and to save your lives by a great deliverance." 

This was Joseph's response to his brothers when he disclosed his identity to them. His brothers had sold him into slavery because he was favored by their father and the Lord. His brothers wanted to kill him at first, and then decided to sell him into slavery. They were purposefully ruining his life. They wanted to hurt him. From my mortal eyes, Joseph had every right to be angry. He was even in a position to make sure they didn't receive any help or food. He could have been been revengeful to them. Instead, he chose to show mercy and he chose to see their actions as what was mean to be. Now, my question is: was he born with that kind of forgiving disposition or did he have to develop it?

I don't know if we can ever truly know the answer to that question from what we know in the book of Genesis. However, we know ourselves and what our natural disposition is. Are we forgiving or are we revengeful? Are we both? Which one is more healing?

Well, about 5 years ago, I would have send revenge would have helped me to heal. Which shows my disposition - revengeful. I think it is safe to say that we all have at least one person in our lives who we wish would just change and be a nice, loving, and mature person. If they would just learn this lesson then they would be a better person and my life would be happier. This is what I believed for a long time. If they other person changed then the problem would go away. 

I don't have a specific moment or event that taught me differently. For me it was a series of little moments, college classes, and books that taught me how to change another person. However, if you would like to read an example of a revenge story I found this one, "Getting Even".

Amy Weir wrote this story and I liked how she worded what she learned about revenge. She said, "Revenge had seemed like the clear answer for me, but...I realized that revenge was empty. I felt worse than I'd ever felt in my life. I wanted to apologize. I learned my lesson that day: revenge is not the way to heal your inner injuries."

She is right. No matter how many times I got to tell the other person that they were wrong and they needed to change, getting my revenge, it didn't change them. The problems were still there. My life wasn't getting better. In a college class I was assigned to read the book "The Anatomy of Peace" while reading that book I learned that "my heart was at war."

I had learned from that book, that the problems I was having with other people were coming from problems I had in myself. "As important as behavior is, most problems at home, at work, and in the world are not failures of strategy but failures of being. ... when our hearts are at war, we can't see situations clearly. we can't consider others' positions seriously enough to solve difficult problems, and we end up provoking hurtful behavior in others."

If I could put all of this into one word it would be - forgiveness. Amy Weir said this about forgiveness, "The Savior said, 'I, the Lord, will forgive whom I will forgive, but of you it is required to forgive all men" (D&C 64:10). I always thought forgiveness was for the benefit of the one being forgiven. ...forgiveness is required for our own benefit.... Forgiveness is the salve for the soul that he Savior made available to us through His atoning sacrifice. We don't need to pay the high price revenge demands to feel whole again. We only need to hand over our pride to gain the forgiveness that the Savior has already paid for." 

Forgiving ourselves helps us to see what parts the Savior can heal in us. Forgiving others helps us to have a peaceful heart and be able to see them in the way the Savior sees them. Forgiveness in general is what brings that eternal and everlasting peace that helps us to become more like Jesus Christ. We put off the injustices of the world and trust that the Christ will make everything right. When we forgive, we are giving the burden of worry, anxiety, injustice, and anger over to the Savior to take care of. Then we can have room in ourselves to have peace, comfort, and healing. We find that we can let go and move forward.

I believe this is what Joseph did. I believe we see evidence of this throughout his story. Genesis 39:1-6 Joseph is a servant in Potiphar's house and find favor in his sight. He starts to become prosperous. Genesis 39:21-23 after Joseph is put into prison, because he was wrongly accused, he also finds favor in the sight of the prison keeper. Genesis 40 and 41 Joseph interprets the dreams of the Pharaoh's baker, butler, and the Pharoah himself. These interpretations saves Joseph from life in prison. In Genesis 42:6-7 he becomes the governor of the land is in a position to save the lives of many, many people including his brothers who originally sold him. If Joseph had held on to bitterness and anger, could he have prospered as much as he did? I don't think so. He would have been closed off from guidance from Christ through the Holy Ghost. He would have remined a slave to Potiphar. 

Instead, Joseph forgave his brothers, his accusers, the prison guards, and those who wronged him. Through that forgiveness he was blessed with prosperity in the land. His own perspective changed. He believed that it was all supposed to happen. This is what God had needed of him so he could be in the right place, in the right moment, to save all those people. He forgave everyone. By doing that, his hard moments were turned to good. Joseph was able to rejoice when he saw his brothers again. He was able to see his life with gladness, not bitterness. Forgiveness is what changes our bad moments to good. Forgiveness brings healing. Forgiveness brings comfort. Forgiveness brings peace. We need to choose to develop forgiveness.