Left to Tell a Story of Courage and Forgiveness Essay Example

Mahatma Gandhi once stated “the weak can never forgive. Forgiveness is the attribute of the strong,” (ThinkExist.com). When reading and listening to Immaculee Ilibagiza its learned that she had to overcome great courage to be able to forgive after all the events that took place. She taught how God gave her the strength and courage she needed to be able to forgive those who slaughtered her family, friends, and neighbors during the three most horrific months of her life. Courage, in her case, is “the quality of spirit that enables one to face difficulty and pain without fear,” (Dictionary.com). One needs to have courage in order to forgive those who have done wrong to them. Without courage no one can forgive. Immaculee has a great deal of courage and that in turn helps her do what God wants all mankind to do and that is forgive. Immaculee discusses how frightened and enraged she was in the beginning. She struggled with her faith and what to believe. Immaculee could hear a ‘devil’ like voice on one shoulder and an ‘angel’ like voice on the other. In her book she describes it as, “the struggle between my prayers and the evil whispers that I was sure belonged to the devil raged in my mind. I never stopped praying . . . and the whispering never relented,” (Left to Tell). Going into her experience Immaculee was very religious, but these events tested her faith. For those 90 days in the bathroom she never let up on her prayers. Matthew 7:7 states “ask and it will be given to you,” so everyday she prayed to God asking for the strength to stay alive and for him to watch over the bathroom. “I realized that my battle to survive this war would have to be fought inside of me. Everything strong and good in me — my faith, hope, and courage — was vulnerable to the dark energy. If I lost my faith, I knew that I wouldn’t be able to survive. I could rely only on God to help me fight,” (Left to Tell). Immaculee’s father gave her his rosary right before he sent her off the stay with