There is an art to forgiveness. Many feel that if they forgive they are saying that what happened to them was ok and that they now must allow those who have hurt them back into their lives. But that is not so.

Forgiveness can create the space for the wronged to move forward from the experience.

For a word that is often used it is surprising how little the word forgiveness is understood. Don’t let your heart harden and in hardening keep everything bottled up.

I found the following book on Forgiveness quite helpful.
The Art of Forgiving by Lewis B. Smedes

“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.”

To forgive is to set a prisoner free and discover that the prisoner was you. Lewis B. Smedes

• This reply was modified 8 years, 2 months ago by Peter.