Review
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Title: Twice Blessed: The Beauty of Forgiving and Forgiveness
Author: S. Michael Wilcox
Publisher: Deseret Book
Genre: Self-Help/Devotional
Year Published: 2016
Number of Pages: 140
Binding: Hardback
ISBN10: 1629721824
ISBN13: 978-1629721828
Price: $18.99
Reviewed by Carl J. Cranney for the Association for Mormon Letters
A quick, yet powerful, read, *Twice Blessed* is a welcome discussion about the necessity and power of the role forgiveness plays in the gospel of Jesus Christ. Wilcox moves in and out of examples from the scriptures, punctuated with anecdotes from his own life and the lives of others he knows, about the power, usefulness, and even redemptive grace that comes from offering forgiveness.
Wilcox is also sensitive to the difficulties in forgiving those who have trespassed against us, and acknowledges the complications that arise when discussing victims forgiving those who have offended them. On these weighty matters I felt the book could have spent a bit more time, but I was satisfied to read his assertion that forgiveness is not reconciliation. Instead, his definition of forgiveness is to release the negative emotions towards those that have offended us. His discussion of what it means reminded much of the saying that holding on to hatred is like swallowing poison and hoping the other person dies.
He alternately moves through various relationships that will need forgiveness—family, others, oneself, and even God—explaining the psychological necessity and spiritual power of extending (and receiving) forgiveness. Each individual chapter, though short, is filled with down-to-earth examples, and in particular his use of the scriptures and some of the stories found therein are quite effective.
Wilcox has spent a lifetime studying the scriptures as a CES employee, and his ability to illustrate abstract principles with stories from the Bible and the Book of Mormon helps the reader to understand those principles in more real-life ways.
The book almost borders on self-help at times, mixing a bit of amateur psychology with the principles of the gospel. While not a greatly in-depth book, it does a more than competent job of discussing the topic, and, since it can be read fairly quickly, it is a great primer on forgiveness for those seeking more knowledge concerning that topic.