We Forgive Freely Or We Do Not

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.

We Feel Guilty For What We Do. We Feel Shame For What We Are.

Spoken Forgiveness, No Matter How Heartfelt, Works Best When We Do Not Demand The Response We Want. I Mean That When We Tell People We Forgive Them, We Must Leave Them Free To Respond To Our Good News However They Are Inclined. If The Response Is Not What We Hoped For, We Can Go Home And Enjoy Our Own Healing In Private.

When You Give Up Vengeance, Make Sure You Are Not Giving Up On Justice. The Line Between The Two Is Faint, Unsteady, And Fine...vengeance Is Our Own Pleasure Of Seeing Someone Who Hurt Us Getting It Back And Then Some. Justice, On The Other Hand, Is Secure When Someone Pays A Fair Penalty For Wronging Another Even If The Injured Person Takes No Pleasure In The Transaction. Vengeance Is Personal Satisfaction. Justice Is Moral Accounting...human Forgiveness Does Not Do Away With Human Justice.

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.