"Then came Peter to him, and said, Lord, how oft shall my brother sin against me, and I forgive him? till seven times? Jesus saith unto him, I say not unto thee, Until seven times: but, Until seventy times seven."
In the "Teachings of Presidents of the Church: George Albert Smith," President Smith writes in chapter 23 "Of You it is Required to Forgive, "At times we find little difficulties arising among us, and we forget the
patience our Father in Heaven exercises towards us, and we magnify in
our hearts some trivial thing that our brother or sister may have done
or said concerning us. We do not always live that law which the Lord
desires us to observe in regard to these matters. We forget the
commandment He gave to the Apostles in the words of the prayer, wherein
they were told to pray that they might be forgiven their debts even as
they forgive their debtors [see Matthew 6:12].
I feel that we have to learn a great deal in this regard. We have not
complied as completely as we should with the requirements of our
Heavenly Father."
I think that forgiveness is never something that is very easy, especially when we feel that we have been very wronged and the person didn't apologize. What is sometimes even more difficult is forgiving our own family members. Our family knows us best. Sometimes because we are so comfortable with our family, we aren't always our best selves with them. Sometimes it might even be harder to forgive our family because of this. Maybe we feel that since they belong to us, since they know us, and since they love us, it is that much worse when they wrong us. This could be true, but it doesn't change the fact that none of us are perfect on this earth.
We're all working on something and we all make mistakes. It might even be harder to apologize to a family member than it would be for anyone else. This could be because we are stubborn, but it doesn't mean that we can't forgive them or shouldn't. There are instances when family members do things that really hurt us, whether it is intentional or not, direct, or indirect. When this happens, we are expected to forgive. It is even required of us.
I had a family member who really hurt the family with a wrong that they had done. It impacted many directly and some indirectly, but either way, it was and still is almost impossible to come to terms with. For some family members it was not even a thought to attempt to forgive. For others, they prayerfully and humbly found their way to forgiveness. We can't control what other people do, but we can control how we react. It might take months or years to forgive, which is okay. What is important, is that we are trying to forgive. "Wherefore, I say unto you, that ye ought to forgive one another; for he that forgiveth not his brother his trespasses standeth condemned before the Lord; for there remaineth in him the greater sin. I, the Lord, will forgive whom I will forgive, but of you it is required to forgive all men. And ye ought to say in your hearts—let God judge between me and thee, and reward thee according to thy deeds." D&C 64:9-11.
