Love Mercy

To my daughter, 

                This week in our scripture reading we have been studying the words of Micah. One of my favorite passages from Micah is this brief verse explaining what we need to do in this life: “He hath shewed thee, O man, what is good; and what doth the Lord require of thee, but to do justly, and to love mercy, and to walk humbly with thy God?” (Micah 6:8) This puts very simply what the most important things we should focus on: doing justly (meaning keeping the commandments of the Lord), loving mercy (meaning showing kindness and compassion to those around us), and walking humbly before God.  I know that you strive to do all these things, but it can be hard to “love mercy” and forgive those who have done wrong. The story of Jonah, which we also discussed this week, gives us an example of someone who did not love mercy. He ran away from preaching to the people of Ninevah because he didn’t want the Lord to show them mercy. After the Lord did stay his hand against the Assyrians, Jonah complained to God in prayer as he explained his actions, “Therefore I fled before unto Tarshish: for I knew that thou art a gracious God, and merciful, slow to anger, and of great kindness, and repentest thee of the evil” (Jonah 4:2). God is merciful and will forgive us when we repent, and so we should forgive others and rejoice when they receive mercy as well.

                I love the final words of Micah as he testified again that the Lord will forgive us our sins and be merciful as we come unto Him. He wrote, “Who is a God like unto thee, that pardoneth iniquity, and passeth by the transgression of the remnant of his heritage? he retaineth not his anger for ever, because he delighteth in mercy. He will turn again, he will have compassion upon us; he will subdue our iniquities; and thou wilt cast all their sins into the depths of the sea” (Micah 7:18-19). I know that God is indeed merciful and as we try our best to make correct choices, and make things right when we do wrong, He will forgive us and it will be as if He throws our mistakes into the depths of the sea so that they disappear. Imagine that you were on a boat in the middle of the ocean and you threw something heavy into the water. Do you think you could ever get it back again? No—it would quickly sink and be gone forever. Micah promised that it can be the same for us with our mistakes and sins. As we forsake them and stop doing them, the Lord can make them totally disappear as if he had dropped them off a boat in the middle of the ocean. So don’t ever get discouraged when you make mistakes; simply do your best to make it right, and turn it over to the Lord and He can make them completely disappear. When the Prophet Joseph made a mistake that caused the loss of the 116 manuscript pages, Jesus said this the young prophet: “But remember, God is merciful; therefore, repent of that which thou hast done which is contrary to the commandment which I gave you, and thou art still chosen, and art again called to the work” (Doctrine and Covenants 3:10). Always remember that God is merciful and indeed He doth “love mercy” and will show it to you as you come unto Him. Know that I love you with all my heart! 

Love,

Dad