Stories of forgiveness, patience and charity, showing how extending grace strengthens relationships
From online hate comments to handwritten notes and long-delayed apologies, BYUH ʻohana shared how grace reshaped their hearts and relationships. Their stories show how grace—choosing kindness over pride, compassion over judgment or forgiveness over resentment—isn’t a single act but a way of living.
Peace, not pride
When online hate flooded her Instagram, Nathania Shakira, a freshman in human and health sciences from Indonesia, said she learned that grace isn't only about receiving forgiveness from God—it's about letting that same love flow outward, even to those who misunderstand us.
While serving her mission in Solo, Indonesia, Shakira posted a video inviting others to meet with the missionaries—a simple message of faith that unexpectedly went viral. “The views are now 600k with 200 comments. The words were sharp and painful,” she recalled. “They mocked my faith and questioned my intentions.” She said her hands shook as she scrolled through the comments, tears falling as she prayed for peace.
At first, she said, she wanted to fight back. “I wanted to type, ‘Stop saying hurtful words.’ But I knew anger wouldn’t bring peace.” Instead, she found comfort in Elder M. Russell Ballard’s talk “Engaging Without Being Defensive.” One line changed her: “We are not here to win arguments but to win hearts.” She said it taught her that Christlike communication is both courageous and calm.
Shakira said she turned her pain into prayer and asked Heavenly Father to help her see those commenters as His children too. Rereading the comments, she said she realized many didn’t truly understand what they were attacking. “It made me see them not as enemies but as people who need love and truth as much as I do.”
Forgiveness, she said, was gradual. “The situation didn’t change, but my heart did. Peace replaced the pain.” Now, before she responds online or in life, she said she asks herself, “Will my words help others feel Christ’s love or just defend my ego?”
The hardest part of navigating online hate is staying kind without feeling like her silence means weakness, Shakira said. “Sometimes silence feels scary because people might misunderstand,” she said. “But I’ve learned that silence guided by the Spirit isn’t weakness—it’s trust in God’s timing.” Grace isn't passive, Shakira said.
The Savior’s grace changes hearts, and the first heart it changes is always our own.
Everyday grace
For Kale Moss, a senior in English education from Oregon, grace doesn’t just appear in grand
gestures—it grows in small, consistent acts of kindness. Whether it’s writing a note, saying someone’s name with joy or offering a high five, Moss believes these “little” moments can leave a lasting mark. “I would say it often, so on days I’m not around, they can remember I would say it,” he said.
Moss said his journey toward everyday grace began in high school. “In middle school, I used to glare at people who swore and called people stupid,” he said. But he said he realized responding that way didn’t make him feel happy. People do “stupid” things, but those actions shouldn’t define them, he shared. He said that shift helped him replace judgment with kindness and start seeing others as amazing.
Moss said he tries to be kind to others regardless of whether they are kind to him or not. He said he has always felt God’s kindness and love, so he “[wants] others to feel that too. They deserve to be loved.”
Moss shared one moment that stood out to him. He said he once prompted to give a note to a random girl sitting alone at the Hale Pavilion that read, “You’re amazing. You’re doing great. People love you.” Days later, Moss said he ran into that girl and she shared how she was struggling that day, and that his note had made her day. “We never spoke again, but we both felt joy,” he said.
Cycle of forgiveness
When Elder Keith Wilson, a senior missionary in the Faculty of Religious Education, was a teenager growing up on a military base, he said he joined friends in what they thought was a harmless prank—egging a mean teacher’s car. His younger brother later went much further, planting a small explosive inside, nearly destroying the new car. Elder Wilson said he didn’t learn about his brother’s mischief until decades later.
That long-unrevealed incident came back one Sunday when his adult son called in tears, Elder Wilson said. His son who lived in a rough area of town, said someone had smashed his car windows during the night for no reason. “He was near tears, asking, ‘Why would they do this?’” Elder Wilson said. “And then I realized I had once made someone else feel exactly that way.”
Overcome with guilt, Elder Wilson knelt in prayer. During the sacrament meeting later that day, he said, “The Spirit just washed over me. I knew I could give that burden away because the Savior had already carried it.”
Elder Wilson said he has come to believe forgiveness is something you do in advance.
You decide to accept the Savior’s forgiveness first.
Doing so prepares your heart for the future when you need to forgive others, he said.
Citing a parable in Matthew 18 about ten thousand talents and a hundred pence, Elder Wilson explained that the Savior forgives us ten thousand talents—a debt equal to about a million dollars today—while we’re asked only to forgive a hundred pence, or about 25 cents, the small debts others owe us. Recognizing that truth, he said, made it impossible not to forgive the unknown vandal. “Because I’d been forgiven, I wanted my son to feel that same burden lifted.”