Forgiveness from A Tale of Two Cities

So I recently read A Tale of Two Cities.  I have to admit I was intimidated at first, but someone suggested reading through the plot summary (which was pretty intense in and of itself) and that helped a ton!!:)  I was able to see a lot of foreshadowing at least and look forward to the end of the book, where all the good stuff is!:)

One of the most interesting characters to me was Madam Defarge.  I felt so sad for her because she let her desire for revenge overtake her and in the end it got her killed.  And Dickens, as I guess he likes to do, gave us a parallel character in Lucie Manette.  Both had their family stripped from them unfairly; Lucie ends up being sweet though even before her father is "recalled to life."  Madam Defarge however is infuriated by her loss of family.  I just look at Madam Defarge and think you could have had a rewarding life, you could have chosen to forgive, but instead you let this evil fester inside of you and destroy you. 

One of my favorite quotes from the book is: "the vigorous tenacity of love, always so much stronger than hate." I guess I found Madam Defarge's choice interesting in light of a recent women's stake conference I went to. The keynote speaker repeatedly told us we always have a choice to make.  Every time something bad (or good:) happens to us we can choose the path of happiness or we can choose the path of misery.  Every choice we make leads us to happiness or misery.  When Heavenly Father asks us to forgive it isn't because of the other person, it is because if we choose not to forgive misery festers inside us until we can no longer feel happiness and evil consumes our thoughts.  When we choose not to forgive we choose our eternal destruction.

Comforting...

So I was recently studying Mosiah 18:8-9 and I learned something I would like to share.  First of all let me post the scriptures: "8 And it came to pass that he said unto them: Behold, here are the waters of Mormon (for thus were they called) and now, as ye are desirous to come into the fold of God, and to be called his people, and are willing to bear one another’s burdens, that they may be light;

 9 Yea, and are willing to mourn with those that mourn; yea, and comfort those that stand in need of comfort, and to stand as witnesses of God at all times and in all things, and in all places that ye may be in, even until death, that ye may be redeemed of God, and be numbered with those of the first resurrection, that ye may have eternal life—"

So what I learned is a good way to comfort someone.  I always thought the three ways listed were just randomly put down, but now I know they were not.  First we must lighten the person's burdens, then we must be willing to mourn with them and then we can give them comfort.  How powerful!  As I thought about this revelation a little bit more it made sense to me.  So often we burden ourselves so that we cannot truly mourn, so in order to be able to mourn we have to have our burdens lightened, and then after we have mourned we can be comforted!!!:)