American - Author | August 20, 1921 - December 19, 2002
To forgive is to set a prisoner free and discover that the prisoner was you.
Lewis B. Smedes
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Forgiving does not erase the bitter past. A healed memory is not a deleted memory. Instead, forgiving what we cannot forget creates a new way to remember. We change the memory of our past into a hope for our future.
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What is a disloyal act? A person is disloyal if he treats you as a stranger when, in fact, he belongs to you as a friend or partner. Each of us is bound to some special others by the invisible fibers of loyalty.
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It takes one person to forgive, it takes two people to be reunited.
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Any lazy or biased fool can have opinions; making judgments is the hard work of responsible and compassionate people.
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You will know that forgiveness has begun when you recall those who hurt you and feel the power to wish them well.
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Restorative justice is not a replacement of retributive justice, but a complement. It seeks the rehabilitation of the wrongdoer and the repair of the victim's injury.
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In a sinful world, no community can exist for long where nobody is ever held accountable: no teacher would grade a student's performance; no citizen would sit on a jury or call a failed leader to account.
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The right to personal privacy is precious. Without it, we are all potential victims for a prying secret police.
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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.
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Forgiving is love's toughest work, and love's biggest risk.
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Seeing reality for what it is is what we call discernment. The work of discernment is very hard.
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