Retributive justice did not arise from any Christian principle; almost every pre-Christian society dealt with wrongdoers by causing them pain. — Lewis B. Smedes Copy Share Image
Some people have loved ones they will not forsake, even though they are a pain in the neck. — 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
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
The problem with revenge is that it never evens the score. It ties both the injured and the injurer to an escalator… — 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
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
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
Forgiving is an affair strictly between a victim and a victimizer. Everyone else should step aside...The worst wounds I ever felt were… — Lewis B. Smedes Copy Share Image
You and I were created for joy, and if we miss it we miss the reason for our existence. If our joy… — 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
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
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
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
![“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)
