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The first and often only person to be healed by forgiveness is the person who does the forgiveness... When we genuinely forgive, we set a prisoner free and then discover that the prisoner we set free was us.
Lewis B. Smedes
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Lewis B. Smedes
Age: 81 †
Born: 1921
Born: August 20
Died: 2002
Died: December 19
Author
Civil Servant
Lewis Benedictus Smedes
First
Forgiving
Discover
Free
Often
Genuinely
Doe
Healed
Persons
Prisoner
Person
Forgive
Firsts
Forgiveness
More quotes by Lewis B. Smedes
God is the original, master forgiver. Each time we grope our reluctant way through the minor miracle of forgiving, we are imitating his style. I am not at all sure that any of us would have had imagination enough to see the possibilities in this way to heal the wrongs of this life had he not done it first.
Lewis B. Smedes
The longer we hate, the harder it is to heal us.
Lewis B. Smedes
My wife has lived with at least five different men since we were wed - and each of the five has been me.
Lewis B. Smedes
We feel guilty for what we do. We feel shame for what we are.
Lewis B. Smedes
Don't do it quickly, but don't wait too long... If we wait too long to forgive, our rage settles in and claims squatter's rights to our souls.
Lewis B. Smedes
When we forgive evil we do not excuse it, we do not tolerate it, we do not smother it. We look the evil full in the face, call it what it is, let its horror shock and stun and enrage us, and only then do we forgive it.
Lewis B. Smedes
To miss out on joy is to miss out on the reason for your existence.
Lewis B. Smedes
None of us wants to admit that we hate someone... When we deny our hate we detour around the crisis of forgiveness. We suppress our spite, make adjustments, and make believe we are too good to be hateful. But the truth is that we do not dare to risk admitting the hate we feel because we do not dare to risk forgiving the person we hate.
Lewis B. Smedes
It takes one person to forgive, it takes two people to be reunited.
Lewis B. Smedes
A wise judge may let mercy temper justice but may not let mercy undo it.
Lewis B. Smedes
Hope is to our spirits what oxygen is to our lungs. Lose hope and you die. They may not bury you for awhile, but without hope you are dead inside. The only way to face the future is to fly straight into it on the wings of hope....hope is the energy of the soul. Hope is the power of tomorrow.
Lewis B. Smedes
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, and getting and giving again.
Lewis B. Smedes
The problem with revenge is that it never evens the score. It ties both the injured and the injurer to an escalator of pain. Both are stuck on the escalator as long as parity is demanded, and the escalator never stops.
Lewis B. Smedes
Forgiving does not erase the bitter past. A healed memory is not a deleted memory.
Lewis B. Smedes
Any moment that opens us up to the reality that life is good is a parable of the supreme end for which we were made.
Lewis B. Smedes
Gandhi was right: if we all live by 'an eye for an eye' the whole world will be blind. The only way out is forgiveness.
Lewis B. Smedes
When forgiveness is necessary, don't wait too long. We must begin to forgive, because without forgiving, we choke off our own joy we kill our own soul. People carrying hate and resentment can invest themselves so deeply in that resentment that they gradually define themselves in terms of it.
Lewis B. Smedes
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.
Lewis B. Smedes
I learned that gratitude is the best feeling I would ever have, the ultimate joy of living.
Lewis B. Smedes
You can forgive someone almost anything. But you cannot tolerate everything...We don't have to tolerate what people do just because we forgive them for doing it. Forgiving heals us personally. To tolerate everything only hurts us all in the long run.
Lewis B. Smedes
