We are anxious in the face of our unchangeable past; we long to recreate segments of our private histories, but we are… — 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
Any moment that opens us up to the reality that life is good is a parable of the supreme end for which… — 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 does not erase the bitter past. A healed memory is not a deleted memory. — Lewis B. Smedes Copy Share Image
Promise keeping is a powerful means of grace in a time when people hardly depend on each other to remember and live… — Lewis B. Smedes Copy Share Image
If you cannot free people from their wrongs and see them as the needy people they are, you enslave yourself to your… — 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
Forgiving does not erase the bitter past. A healed memory is not a deleted memory. Instead, forgiving what we cannot forget creates… — Lewis B. Smedes Copy Share Image
God is the original, master forgiver. Each time we grope our reluctant way through the minor miracle of forgiving, we are imitating… — Lewis B. Smedes Copy Share Image
The moment of grace comes to us in the dynamics of any situation we walk into. It is an opportunity that God… — 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
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
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
The moments of grace usually give us more than one good thing we can do, and we do well if we manage… — 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
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)
