Lewis B. Smedes Quotes About Giving

Quotes about: Giving

• 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.

  Lewis B. Smedes

  Forgiveness, Hurt, Giving Up

• If we say that monsters [people who do terrible evil] are beyond forgiving, we give them a power they should never have...they are given the power to keep their evil alive in the hearts of those who suffered most. We give them power to condemn their victims to live forever with the hurting memory of their painful pasts. We give the monsters the last word.

  Lewis B. Smedes

  Forgiveness, Hurt, Memories

• I worry about fast forgivers. They tend to forgive quickly in order to avoid their pain. Or they forgive fast in order to get an advantage over the people they forgive. And their instant forgiving only makes things worse... People who have been wronged badly and wounded deeply should give themselves time and space before they forgive... There is a right moment to forgive. We cannot predict it in advance; we can only get ourselves ready for it when it arrives... Don't do it quickly, but don't wait too long.

  Lewis B. Smedes

  Forgiveness, Pain, Order

• 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

  Heart, Giving, Dancing

  Lewis B. Smedes (2002). “A Life of Distinction: What It Takes to Live with Courage, Honesty, and Gratitude”, Shaw

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