The Wounded Heart

I'll be teaching Relief Society tomorrow on the subject of forgiveness. Needing to kill two birds bugs with one stone (SAVE THE BIRDS!) because I'm still busily tinkering with the lesson, I'll make today's post a preview of the not-quite-finished-yet poem I've written to accompany it. 

The Wounded Heart

c2009 Susan Noyes Anderson

To every heart, a wound must come;

  no soul is free from this.

Some enemy or friend will deal

  a blow that breaks your bliss.

By malice or intention, born

  of ignorance or whim,

one day, your trust will be forsaken––

  torn from limb to limb.

And as you seek out respite, solace,

  justice or redress,

beware of the false spirit that

  invites you to transgress.

Lay down the sword of tit for tat.

  Spurn battles none can win.

Revenge makes a mean ally, for

  its price is your own sin.

And oh, that wound runs deeper than

  the blow that cut you first,

for pain inflicted on yourself

  will always hurt the worst.

When your heart aches with sorrow,

  wash it in humility

and wrap it in the love our Savior

  offers you and me.

The Master Healer knows the way.

  He died that we might live.

If we would be forgiven, then

  like Him, we must forgive.

I firmly believe that the ability to forgive is a spiritual gift we can all pray for and receive. Taking this thought to its logical conclusion, there can be no offense of such magnitude that it cannot be forgiven, because there is no act of forgiveness so great that the Lord cannot facilitate it. 

In other words, the wounded heart can be healed.

PS. I can't wait to teach this lesson!