Lewis B. Smedes Quotes

No more tears now; I will think about revenge.

Think of each wound as you would of a child who has been hurt by a friend. As long as that child is ranting and raving, trying to get back at the friend, one wound leads to another. But when the child can experience the consoling embrace of a parent, she or he can live through the pain, return to the friend, forgive, and build up a new relationship. Be gentle with yourself, and let your heart be your loving parent as you live your wounds through.

Have you recently been through a challenge, disappointment, break up or disloyalty with somebody in your life? If so, it's important after you've been hurt, to take some time to think like a lion tamer about your pain, so you can tame the possibility of more negativity coming back to bite you again!

Forgiveness is a scalpel that removes emotional scars.

What was the point of being able to forgive, when deep down, you both had to admit you'd never forget?

My forgiving you doesn't make my heart hurt less. It takes awhile to heal.

When the body escaped mutilation, seldom did the heart go to the grave unscarred.

It's an interesting thing to be in your forties and evaluate success and take ownership of some disasters and some pain and try to forgive a little bit - yourself and others.

Love's wounds can be healed only by the one who inflicts them.

If you do not transform your pain, you will always transmit it.

I have a big hole in my heart," I said. "But it'll close over." I don't want to sound all Dr. Phil," she said. "But don't let the scab seal the pain in, okay?" That's good advice," I said. "I hope I can manage it.

They say that time heals a broken heart, but time has stood still since we've been apart.

No, I don’t live in heartache. I don’t cry myself to sleep or any of that. I am, I tell myself, over it. But I do feel a void, icky as that sounds. And—like it or not—I still think about her every single day.

I firmly believe that usually, the person who hurt you doesn't realize what they've done or how much it hurt you. So, continue to pray for the person or situation that caused your pain and anger. Ask God to give you understanding about why they did what they did.

The bruise on the heart which at first feels incredibly tender to the slightest touch eventually turns all the shades of the rainbow and stops aching. We forget about it. We even forget we have hearts until the next time. And then we wonder how we ever could have forgotten. We think this one is better, because, in fact, we cannot fully remember the time before.

Buried beneath disappointment and fear, anger and pride, I just might find it in my heart to forgive.

There is some comfort in killing that which has hurt you, but it is cold comfort. It'll destroy things inside of you that the original pain wouldn't have harmed. Sometimes it's not a question of whether a piece of your soul is going to go missing, only which piece it's going to be.

You have to give a wound time to heal and think of other people's feelings.

Time heals all wounds, unless you pick at them.

Forgiveness takes time. It is the last step of the grieving process.

The best way to heal a broken heart, it turns out, is to find a way to move past the hurt.

I watched my beautiful sister running . . . and I knew she was not running away from me or toward me. Like someone who has survived a gut-shot, the wound had been closing, closing - braiding into a scar for eight long years.

The time at length arrives, when grief is rather an indulgence than a necessity and the smile that plays upon the lips, although it may be deemed a sacrilege, is not banished.

One of my biggest lessons in life is, we heal at the speed of our forgiveness.

Parting is inevitably painful, even for a short time. It's like an amputation, I feel a limb is being torn off, without which I shall be unable to function. And yet, once it is done... life rushes back into the void, richer, more vivid and fuller than before.