Forgiveness is giving up the hope that the past could have been any different, it's accepting the past for what it was, and using this moment and this time to help yourself move forward.

Forgiveness means it finally becomes unimportant that you hit back.

Who was it who said that forgiveness is giving up all hope of having had a different past?

Forgiveness means it finally becomes unimportant for you to hit back. You're done. It doesn't necessarily mean you want to vacation together.

I went around saying for a long time that I am not one of those Christians who is heavily into forgiveness -- that I am one of the other kind. But even though it was funny, and actually true, it started to be too painful to stay this way. They say we are not punished for the sin but by the sin, and I began to feel punished by my unwillingness to forgive.

They say we are punished not for the sin but by the sin, and I began to feel punished by my unwillingness to forgive.

Forgiving people doesn't necessarily mean you want to meet them for lunch. It means you try to undo the Velcro hook. Lewis Smedes said it best: "To forgive is to set a prisoner free and discover that the prisoner was you.

Forgiveness and mercy mean that, bit by bit, you begin to outshine the resentment.

Everyone says forgiveness is a lovely idea, until they have something to forgive. —C. S. LEWIS, MERE CHRISTIANITY

If you do not for give you actually are tying yourself to the perpetrator, that you are going to live your life as a victim. And you won't experience a liberation that comes from forgiving.

Does taking the life of the perpetrator return your mom? No.

When you love, it will hurt. You have to choose to forgive, again and again. But it's worth it. That's the crux of human relationships, Dobbs. The sweetest thing. Loving deeply. And forgiving.