"Because forgiveness connects principles, it connects people."

I've been studying up on forgiveness. This is too good:

“Happiness in family life is most likely to be achieved when founded upon the teachings of the Lord Jesus Christ. Successful marriages and families are established and maintained on principles of faith, prayer, repentance, forgiveness, respect, love, compassion, work, and wholesome recreational activities.”

Forgiveness is positioned right in the middle of these simple truths, founded on our Heavenly Father’s plan of happiness. Because forgiveness connects principles, it connects people. It is a key, it opens locked doors, it is the beginning of an honest path, and it is one of our best hopes for a happy family.

We have all been wounded. We all have wounded others.

I have discovered one thing that most have in common: they have a way of forgiving and forgetting the imperfections of others and of looking for the good.

We can feel God’s love for us every day. Shouldn’t we be able to give a little more of ourselves to our fellowmen as taught in the beloved hymn, "Because I Have Been Given Much”? The Lord has opened the door for us to be forgiven. Wouldn’t it be only right to put aside our own egotism and pride and begin to open that blessed door of forgiveness to those with whom we struggle?

In the end, happiness does not spring from perfection but from applying divine principles, even in small steps.

Thanks for always knowing just how to say it, Elder Uchtdorf. 

http://www.lds.org/liahona/2012/10/one-key-to-a-happy-family?lang=eng