To forgive is to set a prisoner free and discover that the prisoner was you. — Lewis B. Smedes Copy Share Image
It takes one person to forgive, it takes two people to be reunited. — Lewis B. Smedes Copy Share Image
Nothing enables us to forgive like knowing in our hearts that we have been forgiven. — Lewis B. Smedes Copy Share Image
Forgiving does not erase the bitter past. A healed memory is not a deleted memory. — Lewis B. Smedes Copy Share Image
A wise judge may let mercy temper justice but may not let mercy undo it. — Lewis B. Smedes Copy Share Image
Don't do it quickly, but don't wait too long... If we wait too long to forgive, our rage settles in and claims… — Lewis B. Smedes Copy Share Image
The rule is: we cannot really forgive ourselves unless we look at the failure in our past and call it by its… — Lewis B. Smedes Copy Share Image
The blood of Christ covers all of our sins, but each of us must do personal business with God in order to… — Lewis B. Smedes Copy Share Image
God invented forgiving as a remedy for a past that not even he could change and not even he could forget. His… — Lewis B. Smedes Copy Share Image
Forgiving is, first of all, a way of helping yourself to get free of the unfair pain somebody caused you. — Lewis B. Smedes Copy Share Image
...Forgiving is not having to understand. Understanding may come later, in fragments, an insight here and a glimpse there, after forgiving. — Lewis B. Smedes Copy Share Image
I have discovered that most people who tell me that they cannot forgive a person who wronged them are handicapped by a… — Lewis B. Smedes Copy Share Image
Our history is an inevitable component of our being. One thing only can release us from the grip of our history. That… — Lewis B. Smedes Copy Share Image
Forgiveness is God's invention for coming to terms with a world in which people are unfair to each other and hurt each… — Lewis B. Smedes Copy Share Image
Spoken forgiveness, no matter how heartfelt, works best when we do not demand the response we want. I mean that when we… — Lewis B. Smedes Copy Share Image
If we say that monsters [people who do terrible evil] are beyond forgiving, we give them a power they should never have...they… — Lewis B. Smedes Copy Share Image
How many times should you forgive your household bruiser? You should not even think about forgiving him. Not yet. Not as long… — Lewis B. Smedes Copy Share Image
Forgiveness is the key that can unshackle us from a past that will not rest in the grave of things over and… — Lewis B. Smedes Copy Share Image
None of us wants to admit that we hate someone... When we deny our hate we detour around the crisis of forgiveness.… — Lewis B. Smedes Copy Share Image
The only way to heal the pain which will not heal itself is to forgive the person who hurt you. Forgiveness heals… — Lewis B. Smedes Copy Share Image
When forgiveness is necessary, don't wait too long. We must begin to forgive, because without forgiving, we choke off our own joy;… — Lewis B. Smedes Copy Share Image
Once we have forgiven, however, we get a new freedom to forget. This time forgetting is a sign of health; it is… — Lewis B. Smedes Copy Share Image
When we forgive someone, we do not forget the hurtful act, as if forgetting came along with the forgiveness package, the way… — Lewis B. Smedes Copy Share Image
With a little time, and a little more insight, we begin to see both ourselves and our enemies in humbler profiles. We… — Lewis B. Smedes Copy Share Image
I worry about fast forgivers. They tend to forgive quickly in order to avoid their pain. Or they forgive fast in order… — Lewis B. Smedes Copy Share Image
We attach our feelings to the moment when we were hurt, endowing it with immortality. And we let it assault us every… — Lewis B. Smedes Copy Share Image
The problem with revenge is that it never gets what it wants; it never evens the score. Fairness never comes. The chain… — Lewis B. Smedes Copy Share Image
Can you stop your memory on a dime, put it in reverse, and spin it in another direction the way you can… — Lewis B. Smedes Copy Share Image
Forgive a wife-slammer if you can. But you don't have to live with him. Forgive a husband who is abusing your children… — Lewis B. Smedes Copy Share Image
Gandhi was right: if we all live by 'an eye for an eye' the whole world will be blind. The only way… — Lewis B. Smedes Copy Share Image
Not even God can make something fair out of what is intrinsically unfair. Only one thing can be done. Something must break… — Lewis B. Smedes Copy Share Image
Their pain [the injurer's pain at having injured you] and your pain create the point and counterpoint for the rhythm of reconciliation.… — Lewis B. Smedes Copy Share Image
I am certain that people never forgive because they believe they have an obligation to do it or because someone told them… — Lewis B. Smedes Copy Share Image
The first and often only person to be healed by forgiveness is the person who does the forgiveness... When we genuinely forgive,… — Lewis B. Smedes Copy Share Image
Vengeance is having a videotape planted in your soul that cannot be turned off. It plays the painful scene over and over… — Lewis B. Smedes Copy Share Image
Forgiving is love's toughest work, and love's biggest risk. If you twist it into something it was never meant to be, it… — Lewis B. Smedes Copy Share Image
When we forgive evil we do not excuse it, we do not tolerate it, we do not smother it. We look the… — Lewis B. Smedes Copy Share Image
Nothing is more private than a woman's body; it is her physical, emotional, and moral citadel. She cannot be free at all if she… — Lewis B. Smedes Copy Share Image
...Forgiving is not having to understand. Understanding may come later, in fragments, an insight here and a glimpse there, after forgiving. — Lewis B. Smedes Copy Share Image
The God who has the whole world in his hands has grace for the whole world in his heart. — Lewis B. Smedes Copy Share Image
Nobody sees reality whole; we all need others to show us the parts of it that they see better than we do. Nobody sees… — Lewis B. Smedes Copy Share Image
I have discovered that most people who tell me that they cannot forgive a person who wronged them are handicapped by a mistaken understanding… — Lewis B. Smedes Copy Share Image
Spoken forgiveness, no matter how heartfelt, works best when we do not demand the response we want. I mean that when we tell people… — Lewis B. Smedes Copy Share Image
Forgiving does not erase the bitter past. A healed memory is not a deleted memory. Instead, forgiving what we cannot forget creates a new… — Lewis B. Smedes Copy Share Image
We feel properly embarrassed when we are caught doing something that makes us look inept, knuckleheaded, or inappropriate. Maybe the difference is this: we… — Lewis B. Smedes Copy Share Image
Forgiving does not erase the bitter past. A healed memory is not a deleted memory. — Lewis B. Smedes Copy Share Image
When I feel the joy of receiving a gift my heart nudges me to join creation's ballet, the airy dance of giving and receiving,… — Lewis B. Smedes Copy Share Image
Our sense of fairness tells us that people should pay for the wrong they do. — Lewis B. Smedes Copy Share Image
Gratitude is the best feeling I would ever have, the ultimate joy of living. — Lewis B. Smedes Copy Share Image
![“If we say that monsters [people who do terrible evil] are beyond forgiving, we give them a power they should never have...they are given the power to keep their evil alive in the hearts of those who suffered most. We give them power to condemn their victims to live forever with the hurting memory…” quote by Lewis B. Smedes](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/img-quotes/73a/lewis-b-smedes-4850_alive_if-we-say-that-monsters-people-who-do-te_940482.jpg)
![“Their pain [the injurer's pain at having injured you] and your pain create the point and counterpoint for the rhythm of reconciliation. When the beat of their pain is a response to the beat of yours, they have become truthful in their feelings...they have moved a step closer to a truthful reunion.” quote by Lewis B. Smedes](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/img-quotes/125/lewis-b-smedes-4850_beats_their-pain-the-injurer-s-pain-at-having_901587.jpg)
